Skull Session: Quinn Ewers is Not Wally Pipp, Georgia Comes Out Flat Against Kentucky and Michigan’s Offense Looks Miserable Against Arkansas State

By Chase Brown on September 16, 2024 at 5:00 am
Quinn Ewers
Aaron Martinez/Imagn
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Welcome to the Skull Session.

A reminder from Ted Ginn Jr. to kick off our Mondays:

Word of the Day: Improvement.

 AROUND THE HORN. With Ohio State idle in Week 3, I channel surfed for the best college football games on Saturday. Here are some observations for each of the games I watched:

Texas 56 - UTSA 7

With Quinn Ewers sidelined by a strained abdomen, Texas backup quarterback Arch Manning shined and the Longhorns cruised against UTSA. Manning completed nine of 12 passes for 223 yards and four touchdowns in the contest. He also ran the ball 67 yards for a touchdown, reaching a top speed of 20.7 miles per hour en route to the end zone.

While some have referenced the potential for Ewers to become the next Wally Pipp – the New York Yankees first basemen who left a regular-season game because of a headache and never returned to the lineup because, as luck would have it, Lou Gehrig was his replacement – I don’t see it. Manning was in Austin all last season and no rational fans called for him to usurp Ewers. Plus, Ewers has been dominant in almost all of the important games the Longhorns have played in the past year and change. Once he’s back to full strength, he’ll reclaim his status as QB1.

Oh, and Texas is good – like, national championship contender good.

I’d love to see the Longhorns and Buckeyes face off in the College Football Playoff.

Georgia 13 - Kentucky 12

Georgia, Georgia, Georgia.

They do this every year.

Missouri (and Kent State) in 2022, Auburn in 2023 and Kentucky in 2024 – for some reason, Georgia loves to come out flat versus an opponent it should steamroll. The Bulldogs fell into the same trap on Saturday, squeaking out a 13-12 win over the Wildcats because Mark Stoops made the shameful decision to punt at midfield with three minutes left. That choice overshadowed an otherwise impressive performance for the blue and white, who held Georgia to under 20 points on their home turf for the third time since 2020.

Georgia, which remained No. 1 in the Coaches Poll but fell to No. 2 (behind Texas) in the AP Poll, will receive criticism for its performance – as it should – but a one-point win over Kentucky was all the Bulldogs needed it to be: a win. 

Still, we should note that Georgia has more formidable opponents on the schedule, including a road game at No. 4 Alabama on Sept. 28, a road game at No. 1 Texas on Oct. 19, a road game at No. 5 Ole Miss on Nov. 9 and a home game against No. 6 Tennessee on Nov. 16. That said, we’ll see if a one-point win for Georgia was a fluke or a warning sign for Kirby Smart’s team sooner rather than later.

Michigan 28 - Arkansas State 18

With Mason Graham and Will Johnson, Michigan’s defense is respectable. But that Michigan offense? Geez, ow. It stinks out loud. Davis Warren completed 11 of 14 passes for 122 yards on Saturday. His three incompletions were all interceptions to the Arkansas State defense. 

Meanwhile, Kalel Mullings (15 carries, 153 yards, two touchdowns) looks far more explosive than EA Sports College Football 25 cover athlete Donovan Edwards (17 carries, 82 yards, one touchdown) – a hilarious circumstance I did not expect at the start of the season. I did expect, however, that Alex Orji would be Michigan’s quarterback this year. While that was not the case through two-and-a-half games, it could be the case moving forward, as Orji replaced Warren on Saturday and led the Wolverines on a touchdown drive. I guess we’ll see how Sherrone Moore treats that situation this weekend when Michigan welcomes No. 11 USC to the Big House.

For what it’s worth, I think USC wins that game – by a lot. The Trojans are touchdown favorites, according to consensus lines from The Action Network, but that seems too low. I think Lincoln Riley, Miller Moss and that new-and-improved defense (a description that comes for all defenses that move on from Alex Grinch as its coordinator) to make a statement in Ann Arbor this weekend and win in dominant fashion.

 UM, INDIANA? OK, remember when Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti said, “Purdue sucks, but so does Michigan and Ohio State,” announcing his intentions to lead the Hoosiers to victories over the Boilermakers, Wolverines and Buckeyes? Remember how we laughed at him? We are running out of time to laugh.

Indiana looks gooooood.

In three games as Indiana’s head coach, Cignetti has led the Hoosiers to wins over FIU (31-7) Western Illinois (77-3) and UCLA on the road (42-13). While none of those opponents are good football teams, neither is Indiana. Well, it wasn’t supposed to be – at least not this soon into Cignetti’s tenure.

But as I sit here and write the Skull Session for Monday, Sept. 16, I think there’s a real chance Indiana is undefeated when it faces No. 22 Nebraska on Oct. 19. I also think there’s a real chance the Hoosiers have one, maybe two losses when the team host Michigan on Nov. 9. Here’s their schedule over the next few weeks: Charlotte (Saturday), Maryland (Sept. 28), at Northwestern (Oct. 5), Nebraska (Oct. 19), Washington (Oct. 26), Michigan State (Nov. 2), Michigan (No. 9), at Ohio State (Nov. 23) and Purdue (Nov. 30).

That’s not bad for the Hoosiers.

That’s not bad at all.

According to College Football Insiders, Indiana ranks third in the Big Ten in expected points EPA per play behind Ohio State and Washington through three weeks. (EPA, or expected points added, is the number of points added or lost on any given play versus the expected number of points that most teams score or allow in the current drive or next drive). That’s insane for a conference that also features USC, Oregon, Penn State and Michigan.

To be clear, I don’t think Cignetti and the Hoosiers will knock off Ohio State in Columbus – no, not even close. But I’d look long and hard into the possibility that Indiana could knock off Michigan in Ann Arbor the week before. Is that an overreaction? Possibly. (Probably.) But I’m coming off a weekend without Ohio State football, so let me dish out some hot takes!

 BACK WHERE IT BEGAN. Seth Towns is headed back to Harvard – not as a player, but as a coach. Last week, Harvard men’s basketball head coach Tommy Amaker announced Towns will be an assistant on his staff this season.

It’s the latest stop on an incredible basketball career for Towns, who graduated from Northland High School in Columbus before spending four years at Harvard, three years at Ohio State and one year at Howard. In that time, Howard became an Ivy League Player of the Year (2018) but also endured a series of knee and back surgeries.

“We are more than thrilled to welcome Seth back to Harvard basketball and to the Harvard community as a whole,” Amaker said in a statement. “Seth embodied the program’s ideals as a ‘Scholar and Baller’ as a student-athlete and has demonstrated tremendous resiliency and perseverance throughout his career. Rather than follow the paths of others, Seth has always gone where there is no path and left a trail. We look forward to the impact he will have on our current student-athletes.”

Amaker recruited Towns to Harvard out of high school. In two seasons of action with the Crimson, the 6-foot-9, 230-pound forward averaged 14.2 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. He went on to average 3.8 points and 2.2 rebounds per game in one season of action for the Buckeyes, as well as 14.2 points and 6.5 rebounds per game in his lone year with the Bison.

 LET'S DANCE. The BYE WEEK is over. Time to set the tone for another GAME WEEK.

Yeah, that’ll do the trick!

 SONG OF THE DAY. "Let's Dance" - David Bowie.

 CUT TO THE CHASE. A cat named Drifter is safe after sneaking out and getting trapped in a sewer for nearly 8 weeks... The birth of a spectacled bear brings joy to a farming community in Peru... Jurors help detain a man who flees a Maine courthouse in handcuffs... In Denmark, a man is suspected of 86 counts of reckless driving. He filmed it himself... Florida State will continue to stink at football until that one dude eats dog s— out of a cup (IYKYK).

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