Skull Session: Kaleb Brown Left Ohio State Because of "How Stacked We Were," Conference Realignment Could Use Common Sense and Ohio State-USC Could Thrive in the New B1G

By Chase Brown on July 20, 2023 at 5:00 am
Kaleb Brown
90 Comments

Welcome to the Skull Session.

Ohio State wants YOU to attend its kickoff week practices on August 3 and 4. You can purchase tickets for the practices and a Ryan Day Season Kickoff Luncheon here at 10 a.m. on this beautiful mornin'. The Buckeyes hope to see you there.

Let's have a good Thursday, shall we?

 DECISIONS. DECISIONS. When Kaleb Brown entered the transfer portal on April 30, the news shocked Ohio State fans. Even more shocking was Brown's transfer destination on May 4. The Chicago native committed to the Iowa Hawkeyes, who possessed one of college football's worst offenses last season with 251.6 yards and 17.4 points per contest.

However, when Brown reflects on his decision to leave Ohio State – the school he committed to as a four-star prospect and top-100 overall recruit in the class of 2022 – to play for head coach Kirk Ferentz and Iowa makes perfect sense.

From Eliot Clough of Go Iowa Awesome:

"The first time I stepped on campus [at Iowa], I felt like I was at home," he said [on Tuesday]. "From the time I got off the airplane to the time that I left, I felt like it was special here. I like the community. It's real peaceful. It's different than the city that I grew up in, and I feel like it's a place that I can just put my head down and grind."

"Going into the transfer portal – my reasoning for leaving – was just how stacked we were at Ohio State," Brown added. "The two boxes I wanted checked were quarterback stability and a place where I could work for a spot and play immediately. So, those boxes were pretty much checked and it was an easy decision for me."

...

Though he left Buckeye Country for the Hawkeyes, he is taking much of what he learned in Columbus with him to Iowa City. Specifically after working with some of the best receivers in the country like Marvin Harrison Jr., Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Emeka Egbuka, and receivers coach turned offensive coordinator Brian Hartline.

"I learned so many different things from them," he said. "If I could put it in one thing, it'd just be learning the right way to do things, because I wasn't always a receiver. All of those guys are pretty precise in the things that they do, so I definitely looked up to them for a while."

First, let me write that I am thrilled for Brown to be in a place where he feels at home and peaceful. I hope he has a wonderful career with the Hawkeyes and breathes new life into what has been a horrific offensive scheme under Ferentz's son, Brian, for the past six seasons, save for that one time Nate Stanley, T.J. Hockenson and Noah Fant went nuclear in a 55-24 win over Ohio State on Nov. 4, 2017.

I'm still not over that. But, like Tim May, I digress.

The Ohio State implications of Brown's comments are clear: The talent in the room is so absurd that Brown transferred after only one season – as did his classmate Caleb Burton, who transferred to Auburn – because of "how stacked we were at Ohio State."

Marvin Harrison Jr., Emeka Egbuka, Julian Fleming, Xavier Johnson, Jayden Ballard, Kyion Grayes, Kojo Antwi, Brandon Inniss, Carnell Tate, Noah Rogers and Bryson Rodgers. That room is stacked 11 deep. Sorry, LSU, Alabama, USC, Washington (and... Wisconsin?), the Buckeyes have the best wide receiver room in America, and it is not close.

 REALIGNMENT WITH COMMON SENSE. The Athletic's David Ubben has heard it all, especially when it comes to conference realignment. "Plenty of coaches and administrators tacitly acknowledge conference realignment is horribly broken," he wrote in a recent article, "but what should conferences look like?"

Ubben is glad you asked. Well, scratch that. Ubben is glad he asked himself.

He continues:

In a world where realignment has gone wild, let’s lay out a vision for a college football landscape driven by common sense. In short: It’s time to take some modern sensibility, hop into our time machine and head back toward 1970s geography, turning the Power 5 into a Power 8.

It’s better for everyone. The only loss is Big Ten and SEC fans no longer being able to brag about how much more money their schools are getting (that fans never see) than everyone else. We can live with that.

Here’s how each new, rebuilt conference would look in a college football world where things make sense and aren’t on a path to making the sport worse as a whole.

*Big Ten teams, including USC and UCLA, who will become member schools in 2024, listed in new conferences are marked with bold text. Notre Dame, the lone Big Ten addition, has also been bolded.

REALIGNMENT WITH COMMON SENSE (THE ATHLETIC)
ACC SWAC BIG EAST SEC BIG TEN WAC "BIG NINE" "PAC-8"
Clemson Arkansas Boston College Alabama Indiana Arizona Cincinnati Cal
Duke Baylor Florida Auburn Iowa Arizona State Illinois Oregon
Louisville Houston Florida State Georgia Michigan Boise State Iowa State Oregon State
Maryland SMU Miami (FL) Georgia Tech Michigan State BYU Kansas Stanford
UNC TCU Penn State Kentucky Minnesota Colorado Kansas State UCLA
N.C. State Texas Pitt LSU Northwestern Fresno State Missouri USC
Rutgers Texas Tech Syracuse Mississippi State Notre Dame San Diego State Nebraska Washington
South Carolina Texas A&M West Virginia Ole Miss Ohio State Utah Oklahoma Washington State
Virginia   Virginia Tech Tennessee Purdue   Oklahoma State  
Wake Forest   UCF Vanderbilt Wisconsin      

Here is how I would treat this realignment for Ohio State and the Big Ten:

Goodbye, Maryland and Rutgers. Your 88-134 combined record since becoming Big Ten schools would not be missed.

Farewell, Penn State. You were a good team, but you never achieved the same greatness in the Big Ten that you did as an independent. I would honor your time here, though it wouldn't be the same honor I would present to a rival.

Bye bye, Illinois and Nebraska. I would mourn the loss of the Illibuck, but I would not mourn the loss of the Cornhuskers.

Catch you later, USC and UCLA. I never knew you in the Big Ten, and I never will.

Greetings, Notre Dame. Your silly independence is over. Welcome to the Big Leagues.

In the Common Sense Big Ten, Ohio State would maintain its rivalry with Michigan, which is a positive. While I was harsh in my fake farewell to Penn State, the Nittany Lions' departure from the Big Ten would be a massive loss for the conference and diminish the league's overall strength. However, the addition of Notre Dame would heal the wounds.

All in all, I would be excited about Ohio State's prospects in the Common Sense Big Ten. The Buckeyes would still be one of the best programs in college football. They would thrive in the conference, establishing dominance over Michigan, Notre Dame, Wisconsin and Michigan State year in and year out. In other words, it would be life as usual for the Men in the Scarlet and Gray. I like life as usual.

 NEW BEGINNINGS. Before we wrap stuff up here on a Thursday Skull Session, let's continue discussing realignment. Ubben's article was one of several The Athletic released on the topic this week. Another piece was from Scott Dochterman, who looked at rivalries that have thrived, survived or died because of realignment in college football.

From the wiped-out rivalries of Oklahoma-Nebraska in football, Syracuse-Georgetown in men's basketball and Kansas-Missouri in all sports to the elevated series of Tennessee-Florida and Ohio State-Penn State, realignment has completely changed the way we view two schools as they battle on the field and court.

In his article, Dochterman examined realignment's impact on rivalries through the lens of seven categories:

  • Thrived — Rivalries that realignment nudged from a shrug to a sizzle.
  • Nose-dived — Once-annual staples that conference realignment pushed to the back burner.
  • Tried — Once earmarked for rivalry status, these series fell flat for a number of reasons.
  • Died — Great or long-standing rivalries that capsized because of expansion and realignment.
  • Survived — No matter the evolution around them, these rivalries remained intact.
  • Revived — Once deceased, these rivalries are reignited because of recent developments.
  • Primed — On deck are some impactful games that are the byproduct of school migration.

The Buckeyes appear in three of the categories mentioned above. Ohio State-Penn State has "thrived," while Ohio State-Illinois has "nose-dived." But the best could be yet to come for the Buckeyes, who Dochterman said could thrive in a "primed" rivalry with USC when the Trojans meet as Big Ten schools in 2025.

Primed: Ohio State-USC
Others: Arkansas-Oklahoma, Texas-Alabama, West Virginia-Cincinnati, James Madison-Appalachian State

There are dozens of series worth considering, but perhaps no new matchup will energize the masses like USC at Ohio State in 2025. The bluebloods battled as conference champions six times from 1969 through 1985 in the Rose Bowl. USC had won seven consecutive meetings from 1975 through 2009 until the Buckeyes broke through with a Cotton Bowl win in 2017.

Texas and Alabama have primed their future SEC battles with a two-game nonconference series that started last year with a one-point battle in Austin. They meet again Sept. 9 in Tuscaloosa. West Virginia and Cincinnati once competed regularly in the Big East. Now as Big 12 members, their shared location in a spread-out league could forge a potential rivalry. Only 240 miles separate Arkansas and Oklahoma, yet they’ve played each other just 14 times. One day this could wind up as a dynamite SEC series.

James Madison and Appalachian State once were FCS powers and now are Sun Belt competitors. They met last year with a Dukes 32-28 win. Once James Madison becomes postseason-eligible, these programs should regularly battle for the Sun Belt title.

Although the 2017 Cotton Bowl was a snooze fest – I mean, seriously, I don't remember this matchup at all – I can remember my feelings after the Buckeyes took down the Trojans. That win satisfied the need for vengeance 8-year-old Chase felt when Ohio State was embarrassed 35-3 in Los Angeles on Sept. 13, 2008, and lost the following season, 18-15, in Columbus on Sept. 12, 2009.

I look forward to watching Ohio State build upon that win all that time ago when it faces USC in 2025 and beyond. As Dochterman wrote, the rivalry will undoubtedly thrive. Hopefully, the Buckeyes will, too.

 MY GOODNESS, THOSE ARE CLEAN. Jaxon Smith-Njigba has not played in a regular-season contest for the Seattle Seahawks yet. Still, the former Ohio State wide receiver has already become the face of the franchise's newest throwback uniforms.

On Wednesday, the Seahawks released a video of JSN in the team's 90s-based uniforms, a look that features Seattle's royal blue and apple green colors, white numbers and the retro Seahawks logo on each of its sleeves. The uniform also includes a silver helmet the franchise wore across three decades in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Back in the day, when the Seahawks had Russell Wilson, Marshawn Lynch and Percy Harvin, I would choose to play with them in Madden. Whenever I did, I made sure to switch their uniforms to these alternates. I loved them. I'm sure Ohio State legend Joey Galloway did, too.

 SONG OF THE DAY. "Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba.

 CUT TO THE CHASE. A giant oarfish was spotted in shallow waters off the northeast coast of Taiwan... Original Apple iPhone sells for more than $190,000... FIFA can’t guarantee federations will pay promised $30,000 per player at Women’s World Cup... NFL teams are refusing to pay running backs, which reflects the pass-first direction of the league... An 11-year-old boy caught a fish with "human-like teeth" in an Oklahoma pond... World's oldest bodybuilder going strong at 90.

90 Comments

Across The Field: Indiana Beat Writer Zach Osterman Says This Might Be the Hoosiers’ Most Important Regular Season Game Ever and QB Kurtis Rourke Has Played Well Under Pressure

Kurtis Rourke

Lightning Round: Ryan Day Confirms Seth McLaughlin Tore His Achilles, Says Carson Hinzman Will Play Center and Austin Siereveld Will Play Left Guard

Ryan Day
View 90 Comments