Welcome to the Skull Session.
The run for a national championship starts now…
Ohio State earns the No. 8 seed in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff. The Buckeyes will face No. 9 seed Tennessee at home in the first round.https://t.co/xruQxs7qIf pic.twitter.com/iC7QuZG0gI
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) December 8, 2024
Have a good Monday.
“I HATE TENNESSEE, MAN.” Need some reasons to hate Tennessee?
Need some reasons to hate Tennessee? pic.twitter.com/Qh9QkyACsJ
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) December 8, 2024
Describing Neyland Stadium as “a garbage truck worker convention” is one of the funniest things I have ever heard. I don’t know when and where this video is from, but I need to hear more from the person who was interviewed!
TARGET ACQUIRED. As a child of the 2000s, I spent a significant amount of time — far too much time – playing the Call of Duty video games. I had all the titles: Modern Warfare, World at War, Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops, Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 2. (I had future titles, too, but I don’t consider them part of my childhood.)
While I still love all of them, I love Modern Warfare the most. It’s not the best of them – that belongs to Black Ops, which features what I believe is the franchise’s best campaign and second-best multiplayer behind MW2 – but it was the first Call of Duty I played, and there’s no love like a first love.
Modern Warfare features a mission called “All Ghillied Up,” in which the user controls Lt. John Price (who later becomes Capt. Price) as he and Capt. MacMillan move behind enemy lines to eliminate the game’s primary antagonist, Imran Zakhaev. The mission, hailed as one of the greatest levels in video game history for its atmosphere and pacing, starts as a stealth operation and turns into a so anyway I started blasting firefight in the middle of Chernobyl. At the end of the level, the user and MacMillan must fend off what feels like thousands of enemies to escape the ghost town. When I was 7 years old, the end of the mission felt impossible, even on Recruit, the game’s easiest difficulty. Heck, later in life, I failed to complete it on Realism, Veteran and Regular. That’s how hard of a mission it is!
As I reflect on Ohio State’s College Football Playoff draw, I am reminded of “All Ghillied Up.” (I don’t know the reason for that; it could be brain rot.)
If Ohio State beats Tennessee – which will be no easy task – and the remainder of the 12-team bracket ends in chalk, the Buckeyes will face Oregon in Pasadena, Texas in Arlington and Georgia in Atlanta en route to a national title.
That seems… impossible?
Well, no. It’s not impossible.
But it’s a route on Realism while other teams with first-round home games like Notre Dame, Texas and Penn State have routes on Veteran, Regular and Recruit – and I think that’s in order, as the Irish drew Indiana and Georgia, the Longhorns drew Clemson and Arizona State, and the Nittany Lions drew SMU and Boise State.
While Ohio State drew the short stick among teams ranked No. 5 to No. 8, the Buckeyes have no one to blame but themselves for it. Had Ohio State put Michigan in its place last weekend, the Buckeyes would have faced Oregon in the Big Ten Championship. They would have earned the No. 1 seed with a win and the No. 5 seed with a loss. Alas, that’s in the past now. All Ohio State can do now is focus on what’s ahead.
“The hardest one to win is the first one, and we’ll go from there,” Ryan Day said of Ohio State’s matchup with Tennessee and the team’s CFP draw. “A big part of the excitement for our guys is, when they look at the 12 teams, there’s nobody up there that they say, ‘We can’t beat those guys.’ We feel like everybody in the draw we can beat. We have to do it one time. We have to make sure we’re winning the first one.”
Winning the first one is all that matters. Then winning the next one, and the next one, and the next one. But that chaos can wait for later. Now, it’s time for the Buckeyes to move in silence, like “Ghillies in the Mist.”
“There’s been twists and turns, there’s been ups and downs, but here we are,” Day said. “When you think about the opportunity that our team has to go do something like this, this would be an unbelievable accomplishment to go on a run here and win the whole thing. You’re four games away. It’s real. It’s on the table. As much as last week hurt — and it hurt — here we are now. All the focus has got to be on Tennessee and winning the first one.”
COME ON, MAN! Have some shame, Greg Byrne. ICYMI, the Alabama athletic director shared on social media Sunday that he feels “disappointed” with the College Football Playoff committee’s decision to place SMU in the tournament over Alabama.
“I felt we were one of the best 12 teams in the country,” Byrne said. “We had an extremely challenging schedule and recognize that there were two games in particular that we did not perform as well as we should have. … We have said that we would need to see how strength of schedule would be evaluated by the CFP. With this outcome, we will need to assess how many P4 non-conference games make sense in the future to put us in the best position to participate in the CFP. That is not good for college football.”
Who wants to tell him?
No one?
I will!
This season, Alabama had four non-conference and eight conference games on its schedule. The Crimson Tide were undefeated in the former, beating Western Kentucky, USF, Wisconsin (in Madison) and Mercer. They were 5-3 in the latter, beating Georgia, South Carolina, Missouri, LSU and Auburn but losing to Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Oklahoma.
Please notice that none of Alabama’s losses occurred in non-conference competition – the same non-conference competition that featured one opponent from the FCS, two from the Group of Five and one from the Power Four. Instead, the Crimson Tide’s losses came to SEC teams, one at Vanderbilt (!), another at Tennessee and another a 24-3 beatdown at Oklahoma.
“Strength of schedule matters,” Byrne posted on Saturday before the CFP committee announced its 12-team field. “Not all schedules and conferences are created equal. Six of our eight wins are against bowl-eligible teams and have come against some of the top teams in the SEC, including SEC champion Georgia.”
Counter-point: Winning games matters.
Alabama and their media lackeys explaining why its actually good to lose 40-35 to Vanderbilt and 24-3 to Oklahoma pic.twitter.com/VXEwtxcRlx
— Ryan Ginn (@rmginn) December 8, 2024
That’s what I believe. That’s what SMU coach Rhett Lashlee believes, too. While Lashlee said Sunday that Alabama has earned the benefit of the doubt because of its championship pedigree, he also expressed his gratitude for the committee offering his team a chance to compete for a national title.
“Brands like Alabama, brands like Clemson – the bluebloods of our sport – they’ve earned that right,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean they should get the nod in situations like this. I was really proud and thankful that didn’t play into the final decision.”
Same here.
OH, THAT’S NOT… For as long as I can remember, Kirk Herbstreit has been a polarizing figure in Buckeye Nation. Some love him; some hate him. But this college football season, I feel like Herbsteit had started to place himself in the good graces of Ohio State fans.
FOX had a lot to do with that, I think. Joel Klatt changed his tune on Michigan. Gus Johnson lost his fastball. Ohio State had six consecutive noon kickoffs to end the regular season, including five on FOX and one on Big Ten Network, whose majority owner is – you guessed it – FOX.
Meanwhile, Herbstreit used his platform at ESPN to praise the Buckeyes for their immense talent. He also voiced his support of Ryan Day and Will Howard and his appreciation for Jeremiah Smith, whom he said has the potential to become the next Terrell Owens, a 15-year NFL veteran and Pro Football Hall of Famer.
But then Sunday came and went.
First, Herbstreit called out Ohio State fans and the atmosphere at the Horseshoe.
“After the way Ohio State’s season ended against Michigan, I don’t know if it wouldn’t have been better for Ohio State to go on the road to get away from their home crowd that will be booing after their third down not converting, and if the punter comes out, booing Ryan Day,” he said on the College Football Playoff selection show. “They’ll have to rally and have a good start to that game, or it could turn sideways with the home crowd, in my opinion.”
Day responded to that comment in his Sunday press conference.
“We’re fired up to be at home. We can’t wait to be at home,” he said. “It’s gonna be a great atmosphere, and our guys are fired up to go finish the season with a win in Ohio Stadium.”
Somehow, that wasn’t the worst blow to Herbstreit’s street cred in Columbus. A few hours later, Herbstreit’s son, Chase, committed to Michigan.
Chase Herbstreit, the son of former Ohio State quarterback Kirk Herbstreit, has committed to Michigan. https://t.co/FfZucY1tnn
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) December 8, 2024
Geez ow.
It seems unthinkable for an Ohio State fan to allow their son to attend Michigan, but a former Ohio State captain whose dad was also an Ohio State captain? That’s inconceivable!
SONG OF THE DAY. "Better Than" - Lake Street Dive.
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