Welcome to the Skull Session.
Visor Justin Fields is all kinds of cool.
Visor game too clean. @justnfields
— NFL (@NFL) December 10, 2023
: #DETvsCHI on FOX
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Let’s have a good Tuesday, shall we?
WHAT IF...? I love “What if...?” questions. I love them. I love them. I love them.
This week, The Toledo Blade’s David Briggs posed a couple of them in an article titled, “Yes, Ohio State’s AD really wished to ‘kill off football,’ right before backing into the hire of Woody Hayes’:
- What if Ohio State had hired one of the greatest coaches in Missouri football history over the guy who became the greatest coach in its history?
- What if Ohio State’s athletic director – at a loss over how highly the good people of Ohio valued wins on Saturday – got his wish to “kill off football” as a big to-do?
In January 1951, Ohio State needed a new head football coach. The program had run three program leaders out of town in eight seasons, including the Buckeyes’ most recent head coach, Wes Fesler, who had just... *coughs*... suffered three consecutive losses to “That Team Up North”... *coughs*.
Indeed. It did not matter that Fesler led Ohio State to a Rose Bowl win in 1949 or had the team ranked No. 1 in America the week before their Snow Bowl loss to the Wolverines in 1950. Losses to the Wolverines have been and always will be unacceptable in Columbus. After Fesler’s third consecutive loss, he resigned due to “excessive pressure for winning football games.”
Ohio State athletic director Richard Larkins was beside himself.
Think the cries of how money is corrupting college athletics are anything new? Well, let’s check in on the good old days. To Larkins, the way Fesler — his college roommate and a former Buckeyes All-American — was chased out of town underscored two points.
1. “Football is being ruined,” he said. “It’s getting completely out of hand. It’s a Frankenstein, a monster.”
It was time, Larkins added, to slay the creation. He welcomed a new resolution passed by state representatives that called for Ohio State games to be televised, believing — slightly less than prophetically — that TV would not just kill the radio star. It would kill college football, too.
“Maybe television is the answer,” Larkins told the Associated Press. “Maybe it will kill off football as we have It today and we can start all over and build it up again without all this overemphasis. That might be the best thing that could happen to college athletics. Amputation is sometimes worth the cure.
“If we are forced to televise next fall, we'll eventually have crowds of 25,000 and 35,000 in the stadium. Will the people in Cleveland, Cincinnati ... Toledo and other distant spots come? Of course not! They'll stay home and watch the game on television.”
He continued: “Even disregarding television, college athletics are ill, really sick. And the big canker is football. College football is too big for its britches. ... These 80,000, 90,000-seat Roman holidays are not good for college athletics. Football is killing itself. You'll never know the pressures on us in this coaching situation. The outside pressure, the outside interference, it's just terrific. We're educational institutions, we're not the New York Yankees or Chicago Bears.”
But we digress.
Regardless of Larkins’ disillusionment, the crazy train had left the station, which leads to the second point.
2. Ohio State needed to get the next hire right.
Larkins searched America far and wide for Ohio State’s next head football coach. With the help of a committee, he interviewed seven candidates for the position, headlined by Paul Brown, who had led the Buckeyes from 1941-43. At that time, Brown was the Cleveland Browns’ head coach, winning AAFC championships (and soon NFL championships).
Brown declined Larkins’ offer.
Larkins and the committee moved on to Missouri coach Don Faurot, whose split-T offense scored 34 points on the Buckeyes in a one-point Ohio State win in 1950.
While the stories vary, Faurot reportedly accepted the job on a Friday and returned to Missouri to clear out his office. A press conference was arranged, according to historian Jack Park’s Official Ohio State Encyclopedia.
But just as soon as the Mizzou legend agreed to the job, he got cold feet. Greeted back in Columbia by a suddenly deeper-pocketed administration, Faurot changed his mind.
He called Ohio State back the next Monday to resign.
“I can only say that Missouri is very fortunate and is to be congratulated for retaining such a fine person as Don Faurot,” Larkins said.
From there, Faurot coached six more seasons at Missouri, finishing above .500 just once. And Ohio State returned to the drawing board.
Finally, it settled on a young coach from Miami (Ohio) named Wayne Woodrow Hayes.
I think that hire worked out well for the Buckeyes.
Wouldn’t you say?
A MOMENT OF TRUTH. The Monday Skull Session lacked Ohio State hoops #content, something several readers mentioned in the comments section. The reason for that is simple: I hadn’t yet mustered the words to describe the implosion we witnessed from Ohio State on Saturday at the Bryce Jordan Center, where the Buckeyes blew an 18-point second-half lead to the Nittany Lions and fell 83-80.
Now, thanks to Bruce Thornton and Roddy Gayle Jr., two of the unquestioned leaders on Ohio State’s roster, I do.
After the game, Gayle told Adam Jardy of The Columbus Dispatch the Buckeyes’ effort was “lackadaisical” down the stretch, as he believes Ohio State considered the Big Ten contest over with when the team extended its lead to 55-37 with 15:31 left.
Thornton shared the same sentiment.
“It’s us controlling the small things,” he said. “I feel like we was capable of winning this game. We didn’t offensive rebound. We didn’t get stops when we needed it. When we don’t do things like that, it’s hard to win, especially on the road against a good team like Penn State. If we get those under control, we’ll be in good hands.”
The hopes and dreams of Ohio State hoops fans hang on that if.
Under Holtmann, Ohio State is 112-11 (.911 winning percentage) in games where it leads by 10 or more points.
Of those 11 losses, three came in 2022-23. In a season where Ohio State had a 16-19 record and missed the NCAA Tournament, the Buckeyes fell 89-84 to North Carolina in OT after leading 34-20 with 5:38 left in the first half, 71-69 to Purdue after leading 26-14 with 6:24 left in the first half and 68-64 to Rutgers in OT after leading 15-4 with 10:47 left in the first half.
Those losses – and the other 16, for that matter – hurt.
The Penn State loss on Saturday hurt.
But let’s not abandon the Buckeyes just yet. In his 1982 book “Rejection,” James R. Sherman wrote, “You can’t go back and make a new start, but you can start right now and make a brand new ending.”
Thornton seems to have adopted a similar mindset in 2023-24. He can’t change what occurred last season, but this time around, he and his teammates are in complete control of their future.
“It’s a Big Ten game,” Thornton said of Saturday’s loss. “When you think you’re up, you’re really not up. We weren’t focused to the point where we needed to finish out the game the right way, because we’re not at home. It’s so hard to win these road games. When we let one slip away like today, it really hurts. We’ve got to get back to the drawing board and keep getting better.”
Ohio State’s first chance to get better comes in practice this week. Then, on Saturday, the Buckeyes will travel to Atlanta to face UCLA in the CBS Sports Classic, with tip-off scheduled for 3 p.m. inside State Farm Arena.
MIKE CONLEY, EVERYONE. An Ohio State fan-favorite in the mid-2000s, Mike Conley Jr. appeared on The Rich Eisen Show on Friday to discuss the Minnesota Timberwolves’ hot start to the 2023-24 season, the new NBA In-Season Tournament, San Antonio Spurs rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama and more.
Toward the end of Conley’s appearance, he and Eisen discussed his former Ohio State teammate Greg Oden and how he ended up in Columbus for his college basketball career. A video of the discussion and a transcription are below.
On Greg Oden
“Man, I probably think about him more than anybody. It was such an opportunity to be around a guy like that and see somebody who had so much potential. In a league that has changed so much, I think he would have adapted really well throughout his career. I think he would still be playing at a very high level because of his athleticism, his ability to finish and his soft touch with both hands. He was a team guy. You don’t find too many of those bigs who can do all of those things. I wish he would have had that opportunity and stayed healthy enough. When he was healthy, he was a force. Who knows? The history books may have been rewritten a little bit, and he could have been a part of some great teams.”
On how he ended up at Ohio State
“It was our last college visit. I had visited Wake Forest the week before, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m committing to Wake Forest. I’m gone. There’s no question.’ My dad was like, ‘Man, take one more visit – you and Greg. Dequan Cook is already there. You should visit Ohio State. You and Thad Matta have a great relationship.’ I said, ‘Alright. I’ll go.’ It was a Saturday night football game. They played Texas, and Vince Young was the quarterback at the time. It was a massive game. I saw those fans and people, and the city was shut down. I was like, ‘Man, this is a college. This is crazy.’ From that point on, I wanted to be a Buckeye, experience that every weekend and make this basketball program something special.”
If Conley’s goal was to make the Ohio State basketball program special, he accomplished that in short order.
A one-and-done star with Oden and Cook in 2006-07, Conley averaged 11.3 points, 6.1 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 2.2 steals per contest, helping lead Ohio State to 35-4 record with a Big Ten regular-season title, a Big Ten Tournament championship, and a national championship game appearance, where the Buckeyes fell to a stacked Florida team, 84-75, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
While that season didn’t end with a national championship, boy, am I glad Mike Conley Sr. – that’s Olympic gold medalist Mike Conley Sr. – encouraged his son to travel to Columbus in the fall of 2005.
That decision undoubtedly changed the direction of Ohio State men’s basketball he departed for the NBA, where he’s had an impressive 17-year career with the Memphis Grizzlies, Utah Jazz and Minnesota Timberwolves.
BUCKEYE SIGNING DAY BLITZ. On Monday, The 1870 Society, in collaboration with the Ohio State football program, announced the commencement of its anticipated “Buckeye Signing Day Blitz” campaign, a week that aims to rally Buckeye Nation to contribute to the advancement of student-athletes via name, image and likeness initiatives.
Today marks the beginning of our week-long Signing Day Blitz! No contribution is too small. The power of Buckeye Nation is unmatched, and the work we do now paves the way for success in the fall. Click the link to be part of the journeyhttps://t.co/Ve4SVQR5Wg
— The 1870 Society (@the1870society) December 11, 2023
Indeed. this week until Dec. 17, The 1870 Society will look to provide critical support to Ohio State student-athletes. With the campaign, the collective is “focused on harnessing the transformative impact of NIL” to empower Buckeye fans “to contribute to the holistic development of Ohio State football,” the 1870 website states.
Here are the three pillars of the “Buckeye Signing Day Blitz,” according to 1870:
NIL Making a Difference: This campaign underscores the significant role of NIL in shaping the future of student-athletes. Contributions made during the Week of Giving will directly contribute to initiatives that enhance educational opportunities, personal development, and overall well-being.
Size of Ohio State Fan Base: With a fan base that spans the globe, Buckeye Nation holds unparalleled strength. The campaign emphasizes that no contribution is too small to make a substantial difference. Every contribution, regardless of size, adds up to create a collective force for positive change.
Crunch Time for Success: The 1870 Society stresses the urgency of supporting the campaign during its launch. Contributions made during this critical period will ensure the success of Ohio State student-athletes not just in the immediate future but also as they pursue their dreams on and off the field.
“The Buckeye Signing Day Blitz is a testament to the power of community and the impact that collective support can have on the lives of student-athletes,” said Drew Esler, vice president of operations at The 1870 Society. “With the backing of Buckeye Nation, we aim to create last” ng opportunities for these exceptional individuals.”
This week (and always), Ohio State fans can make a one-time contribution or become a member of The 1870 Society.
For $1.99 per month, members gain access to The Ryan Day Podcast. Each of The 1870 Society’s nine membership tiers, based on monthly contributions, comes with additional perks. Those perks include an authentic Buckeye Leaf sticker, a photo autographed by a player, tickets and pregame field access to an O” io State football game, tickets to a “Heisman Lunch” featuring past Ohio State Heisman Trophy winners and more.
That all sounds neat!
SONG OF THE DAY. “Dreams” - Fleetwood Mac.
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