Welcome to the Skull Session.
C.J. Stroud is a rich man and Kyle McCord will be Ohio State's quarterback. What an interesting Monday for news.
Let's have a good Tuesday, shall we?
HERE COMES THE PANCAKE MAN. Most Ohio State fans have a love-hate relationship with John Cooper, with most probably leaning toward the latter half of the spectrum. To be clear, it's not that they hate The Tennessee Man himself – rather the fact that he never could throw the Michigan-sized monkey off his back, especially when it mattered the most for the Buckeyes.
It's been 35 years since Cooper was hired to lead the Ohio State football program. It's been 22 since he was fired. For most of the next two decades and change, Cooper's turbulent tenure took a backseat when the Buckeyes' started an annual dominance of the Wolverines in the Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer eras. The national championships in 2002 and 2014 worked wonders, too. Unfortunately, Ohio State's back-to-back losses to Michigan under Ryan Day have reopened some old wounds for the team's veteran fandom, placing Cooper back in the not-so-friendly view of Buckeye Nation.
Still, Cooper's tenure was not all bad. Was it?
In the words of legendary Ohio State beat writer Mark Rea, Cooper accomplished something for which he will never be credited due to his 2-10-1 record against Michigan: “He transformed the Ohio State football program from its stodgy we-do-it-this-way-because-Woody-did-it-this-way approach to a more streamlined program better equipped to recruit nationally,” secure the best prospects and perform on a national stage.
Rea penned those words in the latest edition of Buckeye Sports Bulletin's Interview Issue, in which Rea spoke with Cooper about his childhood, his tenure at Ohio State and the current direction of the program. The result was a four-page interview, which included this fun question about the best Buckeyes Cooper ever coached:
BSB: You had so many recruiting triumphs at Ohio State. Have you ever tried to compile a list of the best Buckeyes you ever coached?
Cooper: “People have asked me that from time to time, and it’s hard especially when you consider the players we had like Joey Galloway, David Boston, Robert Smith and Eddie George. Gosh, I don’t know how you can put one of those guys in front of the others. But probably the best football player I ever coached in my life – and I’ll probably offend some other people – but I don’t know how you would ever find a better player than Orlando Pace. You know, Eddie was a great, great player, and nobody loves Eddie George more than John Cooper. But Eddie didn’t start for us until his junior year. You talk about a self-made football player, man. Eddie is the hardest-working football player I ever coached by far. But in terms of the best football player, I think it’s Orlando Pace.
“I know I left out some people. You have to mention Mike Vrabel – tenacious, hard-nosed, smart, great work ethic. You’ve got guys like Antoine Winfield and Joe Germaine, Danny Wilkinson, Luke Fickell, Damon Moore, Bobby Hoying. And Andy Katzenmoyer. You talk about an athlete. Holy cow! If he hadn’t gotten hurt, he would have been another Dick Butkus in the NFL. We had some great, great players. What a privilege that was to coach those great players.”
So, in terms of the best football players Cooper ever coached, it was:
Orlando Pace...
some distance
Joey Galloway, David Boston, Robert Smith, Mike Vrabel, Antoine Winfield, Danny Wilkinson, Luke Fickell, Damon Moore, Bobby Hoying and Andy Katzenmoyer.
That's some praise for The Pancake Man. But, of course, that praise is well-deserved. He was a two-time unanimous All-American left tackle for the Buckeyes from 1994-96, but that's not all. In his three-year career, Pace also won the Lombardi Award (twice), the Outland Trophy and finished in fourth place for the 1996 Heisman Trophy.
.@EliManning steps into @OrlandoPace_HOF's house of pancakes and learns how the stat helped his @OhioStateFB Heisman campaign
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) August 31, 2022
Streaming now on @ESPNPLUS pic.twitter.com/4UWrhDsGq0
After his collegiate career, Pace continued building his legacy as one of the most dominant forces in football. The St. Louis Rams selected him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1997 NFL draft, and he later became a seven-time Pro Bowler and three-time first-team All-Pro selection.
Pace contributed to the Rams' Greatest Show on Turf offense that won Super Bowl XXXIV, and he protected future Hall of Famers in quarterback Kurt Warner and running back Marshall Faulk for several seasons. Pace was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2016.
So, yes – I can see what Cooper means when he claims Pace was the best football player of that talented Ohio State bunch.
That talent is one of Cooper's calling cards from his tenure. While everyone would have loved to see him win some more games, Ohio State fans cannot deny that John Cooper could recruit with the best of 'em.
THAT'S A LOT OF BUCKEYES. Each July, The Athletic releases an article where its college football staff conducts a Heisman draft. The preseason exercise involves a snake draft in which 10 senior writers have four rounds to select this season's Heisman candidates. In December, the writer whose four picks have totaled the most points wins.
Here is a brief look at how the points work:
- Heisman Trophy winner: 15 points
- Second-place finish: 9 points
- Third place: 8 points
- Fourth place: 7 points
- Fifth place: 6 points
- Sixth place: 5 points
- Seventh place: 4 points
- Eighth place: 3 points
- Ninth place: 2 points
- 10th place: 1 point
- Invited to New York City: +5 bonus
- Midseason Heisman leader: +5 bonus
On Monday, The Athletic released the 2023 edition of the Heisman draft. Four Buckeyes – Marvin Harrison Jr., Kyle McCord, TreVeyon Henderson and JT Tuimoloau – came off the board in the 40 picks. Here is where each of those Buckeyes was drafted and what the writer who selected them wrote about the pick:
Round 1, Pick 6: Marvin Harrison Jr.
I cringed when I saw that I was picking so late in the first round, but I smiled when I saw Harrison was still available. With the possible exception of Caleb Williams, I’d say the Buckeyes’ star wideout is the best overall player in college football. As Ohio State breaks in a new quarterback, Harrison will be the offense’s headliner and I expect Ryan Day’s attack to continue to light opponents up. Harrison will be one of the top guys on our Freaks List in a few weeks. His coaches and NFL scouts rave about him, and he has shined in the biggest games: 10 catches for 185 yards at Penn State; 7 for 120 against Michigan; five catches for 106 yards and two touchdowns in less than three full quarters against Georgia. DeVonta Smith proved special wideouts can win the Heisman. If Harrison can help Ohio State push past Michigan to win the Big Ten again, that will really help his cause. — Bruce Feldman
Round 2, Pick 1 (No. 9 Overall): Kyle McCord
The starting quarterback of the Ohio State Buckeyes has finished in the top 10 in Heisman voting in five consecutive years and eight times since 2012. C.J. Stroud, Justin Fields and Dwayne Haskins all made it to New York. So I think I’d be a fool not to take McCord here, and I’m a little surprised he slid out of the first round. I’m feeling good about his chances of beating out Devin Brown and putting up big-time numbers in one of the top offenses in college football. — Max Olson
Round 3, Pick 7 (No. 23 Overall): TreVeyon Henderson
The Buckeyes are always in Playoff contention, which is seemingly a prerequisite to get a Heisman ceremony invitation. After a breakout freshman season in 2021, injuries slowed Henderson down in ’22. When he’s healthy, he’s one of the most explosive backs in the country, with the power to run defenders over between the tackles and the speed to take it the distance. The biggest issues for a potential Henderson Heisman campaign will be his carry total, as he’ll have to share the workload with Miyan Williams and the rest of Ohio State’s loaded running back depth chart, in addition to the other potential Heisman candidates on his own offense (Harrison and McCord). But this late in the draft, Henderson feels worthy of a pick. — Sam Khan Jr.
Round 4, Pick 7 (No. 31 Overall): JT Tuimoloau
By this point, I was just looking for any defensive player who could possibly be this year’s Chase Young or Aidan Hutchinson. Tuimoloau was just starting to come on last year, but he had as dominant a single-game defensive performance as I’ve seen in last year’s Penn State game. String a few of those together for a top-5 team, and you could see him getting hyped up. — Stewart Mandel
Ohio State's four selections were the most in the draft, followed by LSU with three and Alabama, Georgia, Michigan and Texas with two. That's impressive.
And let me be Bill Nye for a second and ask you, dear reader, to consider this: The Buckeyes would probably have more selections if the draft extended beyond 40 picks. How about Miyan Williams, Emeka Egbuka, Jack Sawyer? All three would probably be in the next tier. Add in Devin Brown, should he win the quarterback competition, and that would be four more names in contention, which is insane.
The Buckeyes are stacked this season. Sept. 2, please come quickly.
YOU OK, GOOGLE? I have been weary about the evolution of Artificial Intelligence, mainly because of – I don't know – the countless movies that warn us about computers developing sentience and taking over the world, such as the "Terminator" franchise, "iRobot" and other dystopian flicks.
But when I see posts like this, where Google Bard ranked the top-five Ohio State quarterbacks since 2010, I know the time for computers to claim world domination is still far in the future:
Does @OhioStateFB have the best Top 5 QB rankings list in all of the Big 10!?
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) July 24, 2023
Let us know your thoughts pic.twitter.com/5zUb2rzTdo
The proper way to rank this list, in the opinion of the inexperienced and smooth-brained Ohio State beat reporter who writes the Skull Sessions, is Justin Fields, C.J. Stroud, Braxton Miller, Dwayne Haskins, J.T. Barrett, Terrelle Pryor and Cardale Jones. And, of course, Joe Bauserman and Tate Martell are honorable mentions.
I will not take questions about my rankings now. While I have you, however, read Chris Lauderback's column from Sunday. He revisited the Eleven Warriors' Four Kings Quarterbacks rankings and fixed them. You can't tell me if I am right or wrong, but you can tell him that.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON. In the words of The Columbus Dispatch's Adam Jardy, Satch Sullinger, the father of former Ohio State men's basketball standouts JJ and Jared, is "ready to give himself to basketball again."
At 74 years old, the 2010 Naismith Prep Coach of the Year has a new knee, his weight is down and he still loves himself some hoops. This summer, Sullinger returns to the bench as an assistant for Carmen's Crew, the Ohio State alumni team coached by Jared, as the father-son duo will look to lead their team to a title in The Basketball Tournament.
In explaining the decision to bring his dad out of retirement, Jared Sullinger couldn’t resist getting the final word.
“It’s nothing like having a former head coach be your assistant coach,” he said. “The biggest thing about him is the attention to detail. On top of that, having the roles reversed, now he has to listen to me. It was a perfect opportunity for me to put him in a position where I can get him to shut up and listen.”
It’s an apt summarization of the relationship between the two Sullingers. Loquacious, personable and passionate about basketball, the two teamed up to win a state title and earn a No. 1 national ranking at Northland in 2010 before Jared Sullinger went on to play two seasons at Ohio State and be taken in the first round of the 2012 NBA draft.
Sullinger has provided, and will continue to provide, much knowledge and insight for Buckeyes and non-Buckeyes alike on the Carmen's Crew roster, headlined by William Buford and Trevor Thompson of the Thad Matta era, and Kaleb Wesson, Andre Wesson, Keyshawn Woods, C.J. Jackson and Kyle Young of the Chris Holtmann era.
Carmen's Crew's opening-round matchup will be against Team Overtime on Wednesday at UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio. The contest will be streamed on ESPN+ with tip-off at 6 p.m.
Whenever his time with Carmen’s Crew ends this summer – after Wednesday's elimination matchup with Team Overtime, elimination matchups on Friday or Saturday, or sometime later – Sullinger hopes his tenure with the Ohio State alumni team will only be the start of his coaching revival.
“I told Jared, ‘I’m going to contact (Ohio State coach) Chris Holtmann and see if he wants to hire me as a consultant,’ ” Satch Sullinger said. “I don’t want to go out and recruit, be on the road, but all these other programs take an older guy and have him as a consultant. Chris is considering that. ... I’m going to be the assistant to (my son) that I always wanted for me. That’s what I’m gonna be to him, and hopefully that what I’m going to be one day for Chris Holtmann.”
Ohio State men's basketball consultant Satch Sullinger... I like it. That sounds nice.
SONG OF THE DAY. "Meant To Live" by Switchfoot (Jon Bellion Version).
CUT TO THE CHASE. Avid search for missing Texas rodeo goat bringing residents of a small rural county together... Say goodbye to Bodypainting Day, New York City’s annual celebration of nudity and artistry... The sea otter harassing surfers off the California coast eludes capture as her fan club grows... Twitter has a new logo: Musk drops bird for black-and-white "X"... The 2023 Mullet Championships have returned: See this year's contestants (Quinn Ewers is not one of them).
