Skull Session: Buckeyes Top SP+, Tanner McCalister Was Great in Coverage, and Matthew Jones Was Perfect in Pass Protection

Love to get owned online.

good news, the sports blogging industry should be okay thenhttps://t.co/Y0KHbRYJWV
— It me i'm sliced bread (@MattBrownEP) May 23, 2022

Word of the Day: Venerate.

STILL THE KING. With the dust officially settled on transfer season, noted football knower Bill Connelly deemed it pertinent to adjust his famous SP+ ratings to account for all the player shuffling.

The biggest names in the transfer portal have mostly made their decisions, and my weekly power conference previews begin this week. It sounds like a pretty good time to post some updated SP+ projections!

Thus far, my preview series has leaned on numbers posted in February after the second National Signing Day had come and gone. But enough has changed at this point - I was getting ready to write a Pac-12 South preview using numbers that thought quarterback Jayden Daniels was still at Arizona State, for instance - that it felt like a good time for an update. These aren't the final projections of the offseason; those will still come in mid- to late-August. But let's see what havoc the transfer portal hath wrought in the last three months.

The good news is that despite Ohio State effectively trading like five defensive backs for a third scholarship kicker, the Buckeyes still top the SP+ projections.

Here's your top-10:

Ohio State
Alabama
Georgia
Michigan
Oklahoma
Clemson
Notre Dame
Texas A&M
Tennessee
Wisconsin

There wasn't a ton of movement at the top – Georgia and Alabama traded places, Clemson and Notre Dame traded places, and Oklahoma moved up a couple of spots while Texas A&M moved down a couple.

But there were definitely some big changes outside of the top-10. Baylor and Arizona State must have absolutely hemorrhaged talent, dropping down 10 and 11 spots respectively as the biggest Power while Wyoming fell an absurd 19 spots.

As you might imagine, USC was the biggest gainer of talent, jumping 13 spots in the rankings. But... They're still only No. 51. Connelly projects the Trojan defense to be decidedly bad (ranked No. 84) while predicting the USC offense to be fairly fine (ranked No. 24). USC overrated? I never would have guessed!

LOCKDOWN. The Buckeyes don't dip into the transfer portal often, but when they do, they usually don't play around.

In their first seasons at Ohio State, Justin Fields was a Heisman Trophy finalist, Trey Sermon broke a single-game rushing record, Jonah Jackson was first-team All-Big Ten, and Noah Ruggles was a Lou Groza finalist.

Tanner McCalister's got next.

Tanner McCalister followed his defensive coordinator Jim Knowles from one OSU to another this offseason.

In 2021, McCalister allowed a catch rate 11.2% below expected. pic.twitter.com/EiHnpVKUGZ
— CFB Film Room (@CFBFilmRoom) May 23, 2022

I don't want to overhype him, but I'm not sure there possibly could have been a better offseason portal addition.

Dude is extremely good at a very important position where Ohio State was very much not good at last year and he already knows the very complex defense the Buckeyes are installing this offseason and has been helping his teammates learn it so well that Ryan Day's described him as a "player-coach" multiple times.

I'm not saying he's going to win the Jim Thorpe Award or anything, but there just wasn't a more perfect player the Buckeyes could have brought in (also, Denzel Burke already has that hardware locked up anyway).

PERFECT PASS PRO. I spent basically all of last season begging for Matthew Jones to see more playing time somewhere because I firmly believe he was the best run-blocking interior lineman on the roster last season.

Turns out, he was pretty damn good in pass pro, too.

Matthew Jones didn't allow a sack last season

via @GrindTime55 pic.twitter.com/zVN15lxwvG
— PFF College (@PFF_College) May 24, 2022

I get why it was hard to take Paris Johnson Jr. and Thayer Munford off the field last year, but Jones was just so damn good whenever he was in the lineup. I'm glad he will get his shot as a full-time starter – for him and the team.

PEN TO PAPER. Nobody in the history of the NFL has been more excited for their son to get drafted by the damn New York Jets than Jeremy Ruckert's father.