Skull Session: Ohio State's Run Plays Were Telegraphed, The Buckeyes Blasted Duke 10 Years Ago, and Jack Miller Has Transfer Options

Good morning to you all, especially those currently in a tent outside the Schott.

It may not be gameday yet but the @BuckeyeNutHouse is here! pic.twitter.com/lOhuLpQHTX
— Ohio State Hoops (@OhioStateHoops) November 30, 2021

I salute you – I spent many, many frigid nights sleeping on those sidewalks in my day. If you need some provisions, hit my DMs. Also, say some unkind things to Coach K on my behalf.

Word of the Day: Dilatory.

TELEGRAPHED. You know what's worse than just not running the ball at all? Announcing to the defense before the snap that you are going to be running the ball.

That's basically what Ryan Day did with his formations against Michigan on Saturday, according to this pretty damning excel spreadsheet from @colintj (whose Tweet I did not embed for formatting reasons).

If you're not sure what you're looking at, allow me to help: Ohio State ran the ball 100 percent of the time it wasn't in shotgun and threw the ball 86 percent of the time it was in shotgun.

Sneaky sneaky!

And here I was putting most of the blame on the offensive line for not winning the line of scrimmage. It's a lot tougher to do your job when your coach isn't putting you in a position to win.

On the other hand, based on what I saw on Saturday, Michigan probably could have called out their specific running plays before the snap, let Ohio State align accordingly, and still averaged seven yards per carry. So maybe I'm just all the way mad about everything.

FLUSHING THE DUKIES. Depending on your level of continued dejection from Saturday's loss, you may or may not be aware that Ohio State hosts top-ranked Duke in the Schott tonight.

Coincidentally, the Blue Devils last visited Columbus 10 years ago yesterday. It went well!

10 years ago today

See you guys tomorrow pic.twitter.com/8o6Dz8h9M4
— Ohio State Hoops (@OhioStateHoops) November 29, 2021

Needless to say, I'm fully expecting a 22-point blowout, but I'll grudgingly settle for a simple, old-fashioned win.

I have a feeling this Buckeye team is going to have a lot more attention on it a lot earlier than in previous years. It's up to them to determine whether that's good news or bad news!

COME TO OHIO STATE, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE! I used to be at least halfway joking when I said that players who have successful careers after transferring from Ohio State are a solid recruiting pitch for the Buckeyes.

I'm not sure it's even halfway a joke anymore.

Example: Jack Miller is leaving Ohio State after two seasons. He got to train in arguably the most talented quarterbacks room in the country with arguably the best quarterbacks coach in the country and compete for a starting job. When it didn't work out, he's now a better quarterback with a laundry list of programs where he can use his free transfer and likely start immediately.

Potential landing spots: Several schools showed immediate interest, including Arizona, Houston, Florida State, Wisconsin and South Carolina. Being from Arizona, the Wildcats have been considered the favorite, but the competition looks to be plentiful

He never really had a chance to start at Ohio State and the odds were stacked against him from the beginning, but he's absolutely better and more prepared player entering one of these programs now than he would have been out of high school.

That's a legitimate recruiting pitch: even if it doesn't work out here, you'll be better prepared wherever you go next.

It's like an internship with Google – even if they don't hire you for that full-time job after the internship, you still have that experience and get to slap it on your resume.

"The coaches have prepared me to face the future head on and with confidence," Miller said in his announcement. "I'll always be thankful for the time they spent with me."

DICK MOVE. I've seen some unsavory departures from a team (see Riley, Lincoln a day ago), but absolutely nothing has or ever will top Brian Kelly leaving his team less than a week before they could extremely realistically end up in the College Football Playoff.

Just two days ago, after Notre Dame finished off an 11-1 season with a blowout win over Stanford, Kelly said the following: “We’ve got one of the best four teams in my mind in the country, without question, and we’re ready to prove it.”

And with the Fighting Irish expected to be ranked No. 5 or No. 6 by the selection committee on Tuesday, it wouldn’t have taken that much for Notre Dame to get in. If Georgia beats Alabama and either Cincinnati, Michigan or Oklahoma State loses their conference championship game, the Fighting Irish would almost certainly be in the final four.

...

For those who say you can’t blame Kelly for accepting a contract from LSU that is expected to be well north of $10 million per year, that’s bollocks. There is nobody to blame but Kelly for a classless, gutless exit before the kids he recruited to Notre Dame even know whether they’ll have the privilege of playing for a national championship.

By making this move now, Kelly should be a pariah in his profession, never thought of the same way again. He doesn’t care at all about those players, and whatever respect he had earned for his stewardship of the Notre Dame program over the last dozen years has been flushed down the toilet. He should forever be known as little more than a snake and a mercenary.

But at least he sent them a late night message!

Just now Brian Kelly messaged Notre Dames roster in Team Works that I will be leaving Notre Dame.

The plan is for Kelly to meet with the team tomorrow at 7 a.m.

Here is the full message pic.twitter.com/sqAl2txZIy
— Pete Sampson (@PeteSampson_) November 30, 2021

To be clear, if I received that message informing me that my coach was leaving us cold in the middle of a College Football Playoff run and that he would tell me why at 7 a.m., there is a less than 0 percent chance I would be attending that meeting.

Imagine trying to recruit after this.

I'm usually not a fan of negative recruiting but telling a kid "hey, Brian Kelly doesn't give a shit about you" wouldn't even feel like negative recruiting. It's just the truth.

SONG OF THE DAY. "A Moment Like This" by Kelly Clarkson.