Skull Session: It Was Time to Move On From Thad Matta, Tanner Holden Makes NIL Money Already, and Pete Werner is a Run Stopper

By Kevin Harrish on April 5, 2022 at 5:30 am
we've got some balls in today's skull session.
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There is no better way to start the day than with Baby Zed.

I will say, I'm downright stunned that child Zed is not doing finger guns in that photo.

Word of the Day: Rejoinder.

 GOOD FOR THAD, BUT. With Thad Matta getting back in the coaching game at Butler, I've seen an unsmall number of people insinuating or outright suggesting that Ohio State was wrong to move on from him back in 2017.

Listen, I love Thad – he's easily the best coach in Ohio State basketball history and at his peak, I genuinely believe he was one of the best coaches in the country. But some of y'all have extremely short memories.

Those last few years, the program was in an absolute freefall with no end in sight.

Y'all are salty about Chris Holtmann not getting to the Sweet 16, Ohio State missed the NCAA Tournament altogether two years in a row under Thad Matta and hadn't made it past the first weekend in the past four years. And perhaps more than anything else, recruiting had completely stalled to the point that nobody was even remotely optimistic about the future, either.

I think the issue here is we're comparing Holtmann's first five years to Matta's first five years (or his best five years) – that's totally fair since that's what people see as the standard for Ohio State basketball. It's also totally fair to be happy for Thad, to think that he's a great coach, or even jealous that he's healthy and going to Butler.

But it's not fair or remotely realistic to look back and genuinely believe Ohio State should have stuck with Thad back in 2017. Because it was clearly better for everyone involved that they move on – Thad included.

 GET PAID. If y'all wondered just how much NIL opportunities play into recruiting these days, it took Tanner Holden less than 48 hours from becoming a Buckeye to start taking advantage of his NIL, and he explicitly said it was a key factor in his decision.

  1. Good on him for cashing in with the quickness and for his plans to get involved with the community.
  2.  He's a sentient recruiting pitch for anyone else looking to do the same thing.

Regardless of how you feel about it, this is the new reality. But the good news is, Ohio State's in a damn good position to take advantage.

 PETE WERNER > AARON DONALD? I've been dishing this #take since he was drafted, but I've always believed that Pete Werner's pro career was going to be so quietly great that nobody is even going to realize how good he was until he retires and people go "wow, that dude was damn near a perennial All-Pro and Pro Bowler."

He's not going to make many flashy plays, he's not going to show up on NFL red zone all that often, and he probably won't make much of a splash in free agency. He's just going to quietly show up and do his job for a decade-plus.

I'm not ready to claim victory on that prediction quite yet, but we're well on our way. Case in point – who here had any idea that Pete was *this* dominant against the run this season?

The dude was literally the best rookie run defender of the past seven years and you barely heard his name. It's amazing.

I'm not going to come out here and say he should have gotten more consideration for NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year because Micah Parsons was the unanimous choice for very good reason, but the fact is that Werner was good as hell his first year in the league and he's going to keep quietly doing his thing for the foreseeable future.

 HAPPY DEBUT. It's always good to see a Buckeye make it to the big leagues of their respective sport, but it's especially sweet to see it happen just a few blocks down the street.

Former Ohio State forward Carson Meyer made his NHL debut for the Columbus Blue Jackets last night.

We'll have to celebrate his first goal another time, but I have no doubts it'll be coming soon.

 SONG OF THE DAY. "She Sells Sanctuary" by The Cult

 NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. His family overdosed on Benadryl and his story kept changing... How a Masters champion ended up in an Argentine prison... Someone Rick Rolled the entire city of Dallas with a giant floating QR code... How to turn yourself into a fossil... How I hacked my neighbor's WiFi... See all the products Microsoft has murdered since 1992...

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