Skull Session: Playboy Photoshopped Archie Griffin Into a Photo, Buckeyes Rank in Top-25 in Returning Talent, and Home Hoops Slate Isn't Great

I don't know whether to apologize or take a bow for introducing this video into your lives.

Either way, here.

@graceharbaugh
he loves this song
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I love the optics of Harbaugh just singing and dancing on vacation while Michigan's 2023 recruiting class just burns to ashes around him and his fanbase melts down. Good stuff! Very much approve!

Word of the Day: Stipendiary.

ARCHIE GRIFFIN, PLAYMATE I was yesterday days old when I learned that Playboy used to sponsor college football's most notorious preseason All-American teams – which is awesome and fun and should continue to happen to this day, in my opinion.

Awesome as it was, not every coach was cool with the perceived optics of his players appearing in a Playboy photoshoot – including Woody Hayes when Archie Griffin got the coveted invite.

So, Playboy had to get hilariously creative.

Playboy had a choice: If it could find a player of similar talent willing to participate in the photo shoot, the magazine selected that player for the All-America team. But this wasn’t always possible. Leaving off a star would damage credibility. Such was the case in 1975 with Archie Griffin, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.

Ohio State coach Woody Hayes didn’t mind if Ohio State players made the Playboy team, he just wouldn’t let them attend the weekend photo shoot.

“Quite frankly, I had heard about the Playboy weekend and it was always pretty nice,” Griffin said. “I really hadn’t heard anything negative. But I just think (Hayes) looked at the brand and what he felt the brand represented. And he just didn’t want his players to go to something that he thought was not good, especially during that time, back in the ’70s.”

Playboy’s solution: It had a similar-sized person stand in for Griffin and then pasted the Ohio State running back into the photo. Griffin didn’t find out about this until much later. Through the years fans have shown him the photo. Griffin’s response never has changed:

“That’s not really me because I wasn’t there.”

While I certainly understand Archie's perplexion, I can honestly say that I would pay a considerable amount of money to have somebody photoshop me into a Playboy magazine. Somebody doing it behind my back would be an honor far too great for me to handle.

RUNNING IT BACK. A team like Ohio State (and by that, I mean a perennial title contender) usually cycles through talent pretty quickly with players leaving early for the NFL.

But even after having two receivers picked in the first round, the Buckeyes still return a level of talent that is "almost unheard of."

UPDATED RETURNING PRODUCTION RANKINGS:

* BYU jumps to the top of the list
* Hawaii dives to the bottom
* Ohio States still top-25, which is almost unheard of for an elite team. pic.twitter.com/04SBo3Svlf
— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) June 29, 2022

I guess that's what happens when you return most of your defense and three legitimate Heisman Trophy candidates on offense.

I'm trying to temper my expectations for this upcoming season, but it just gets more difficult by the day.

HOW NOT TO SELL TICKETS. Y'all know my thoughts on the general gameday environment of the Schottenstein Center. But Ohio State somehow found a way to make gamedays even worse, at least for the non-conference slate.

I fully get the value of the neutral-court game, but college basketball would be better if the best teams played each other on each other's campuses occasionally. No issue with buying some wins either! But 20 league games + MTE + ACC/B1G + Neutral showcase fills schedule FAST.
— Kevin Sweeney (@CBB_Central) June 29, 2022

Yeah, you can't complain about a drop in attendance when you pull this garbage. But you know they're going to.

"People just don't like to attend games in person anymore!!!"

SLIPPERY BACKS. Turns out, even as a true freshman, TreVeyon Henderson knew how to make folks miss.

Most forced missed tackles/attempt by an Ohio State RB (with 100+ carries) since 2014:

1 Trey Sermon (2020) - 0.28
2 TreVeyon Henderson (2021) - 0.27 pic.twitter.com/Ka7nQFNQtu
— PFF College (@PFF_College) June 29, 2022

The dude quietly had one of the most productive and promising freshman seasons of any Ohio State running back ever and almost nobody is taking notice because of how obscene the Buckeye passing game is. It rules.

Also, Trey Sermon's lone season with Ohio State (really, just that epic three-game span) is going to go down as one of the most hilarious statistical anomalies in college football history, and I love everything about it.

SONG OF THE DAY. "The Sound of Silence" by Disturbed.