Welcome to the Skull Session.
The Rose Stripes are back.
For all the roses pic.twitter.com/qu8vXwlF4J
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) December 29, 2024
That's a W.
Have a good Monday.
PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE. Ryan Day and his staff used psychological warfare with their players this week. According to Will Howard, as Ohio State prepared for the Rose Bowl, Day looped the team’s regular-season loss to Oregon on all televisions inside of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
“We got the game playing in the facility here, so nobody has forgot about it,” Howard said.
I like it.
As Thor said in Avengers: Infinity War, rage, vengeance, anger, loss, regret – they’re all tremendous motivators, they really clear the mind. Just as Thor received a rematch with Thanos in Wakanda, Ohio State received a rematch with Oregon in the Rose Bowl.
“We have to make sure we take advantage of it,” Howard said. “It’s a hell of a team, man. Oregon is a great team. They do some really good stuff. It’s not going to be easy, but we have to go in there and do our thing, take what they give us and impose our will because that’s the only way we can do it from here on out.”
Some advice for Ohio State: Go for the head.
UNDER PRESSURE! If Ohio State wants to go for the head (or leave no doubt) against Oregon, the Buckeyes must make Dillon Gabriel uncomfortable in the pocket – far more uncomfortable than he was last time.
According to Pro Football Focus, Ohio State pressured Gabriel 13 times in its first meeting with Oregon. However, none of those pressures resulted in the Ducks’ quarterback crashing into the turf. The Buckeyes never sacked him. They hit him once as he threw. Because Gabriel was free to move around the pocket, he completed 23 of 34 passes for 341 yards and two touchdowns, delivering one of the best performances of his Heisman finalist season.
In the aftermath of Ohio State’s loss, Day said he and Jim Knowles “re-engineered” the defense. As a result, the Buckeyes have had at least four sacks in four of their past five games. That includes their win over Tennessee, which saw JT Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer have the best combined performance of their four-year careers: 13 tackles, four tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, three pass breakups and one forced fumble.
Tuimoloau said last week that he and Sawyer hope to have a similar performance in the Rose Bowl. The defensive end duo will accomplish that if they execute the game plan Knowles created for them.
“It takes everybody. It takes everybody in this Woody to get the things we need to get done,” Tuimoloau said. “That’s one of our list of goals that we want to accomplish. But we understand that if we continue to do our job and continue to trust one another and play as fast as we can and as hard as we can, I think everything will fall right in line.”
As I mentioned in the section above, rage, vengeance, anger, loss and regret are all tremendous motivators. Love is, too. Love for your state, your school, your team and your brothers. Tuimoloau said he and his teammates will lean on that as the Ohio State defense looks to contain Gabriel and the Oregon offense.
“We know how the last time went,” Tuimoloau said. “We understand that everything is at stake now. Fighting to wear another Ohio State jersey for the next game. That’s what’s at stake – being able to represent this state and this team. We understand what’s on the line. We’re just hungry and blessed that we get this opportunity to play in the Rose Bowl.”
Get ready to learn Bermuda grass, Mr. Gabriel.
UNITE BEFORE THE BATTLE. While Ohio State and Oregon will battle on the football field on Wednesday, the schools will unite at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank on Tuesday.
In a collaborative effort between the Buckeyes and the Ducks, the schools' administrative leaders, students and alumni will assemble food packages that consist of canned fruit, canned vegetables, rice, cereal and other non-perishable food items. The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank will use the packages to serve over 27,000 people in the area.
According to an Ohio State press release, this year's service marks the 25th time the Ohio State's Office of Student Life has partnered a service project with the school's football bowl game, dating back to the 1998 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. The 13th time included the Buckeyes and Ducks at the 2010 Rose Bowl!
Here's some more information on this year's service project:
Date: Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Time: 8:30 – 10:30 a.m. Pacific
Location: Los Angeles Regional Food Bank
2300 Pellissier Place, City of Industry, CA 90601
To those in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl, the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank would love some help. Send some pictures to me if you make it (chase.brown@elevenwarriors.com).
JT THE QB IV. J.T. Barrett has carved out a special role for himself with the Detroit Lions. The assistant quarterbacks coach for the current No. 1 team in the NFC, Barrett and two other offensive staffers have helped Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson create the trick plays the Lions seem to run each game, including the “stumblebum” fake-fumble touchdown the team ran against the Chicago Bears last week.
Come for mic'd up Stumblebum, stay for Ben's celly pic.twitter.com/xGBIVObYM9
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) December 28, 2024
“Seth Ryan, Steve Oliver and J.T. Barrett, they’ve been in charge of our specials not just this year, but for the last few years, and there’s a reason why we have probably a little higher success rate for those special plays, and they’re a big reason why,” Johnson said, per Jared Ramsey of The Detroit Free Press. “They have a ton of creativity. They bring ideas to the table.”
More often than Ryan and Oliver, Barrett is the chief orchestrator of those ideas.
From Ramsey’s article:
Lions backup quarterback Hendon Hooker said Barrett not only provides "brilliant" play design ideas but has the ability to connect and teach anyone on the offense, most importantly in the quarterback room. He said it is a collaborative process between all of the quarterbacks, Barrett and quarterbacks coach Mark Brunell to come up with a complete understanding of how to attack specific defenses.
He also credited Barrett, a former Ohio State QB who joined Detroit as an offensive assistant in 2022 before being promoted, for his ability to teach the nuances of the playbook to him as a newer player to the league while still getting Jared Goff prepared as the starter.
"He's a true student of the game," Hooker told the Free Press. "I'm really speechless because of the things that he does just for me alone helping me understand the installs that come in — his creativity is off the charts — the same way he was introducing me to the playbook last year. He does the same thing now, and it helps me a lot."
None of that surprises me.
Barrett was a record-breaking quarterback at Ohio State. While he may not have had the physical traits to be an NFL quarterback, he had the brains for it. That made his transition to coaching feel like only a matter of time. Now that he’s been in the profession for a few seasons, I expect him to continue to have success and climb the ranks.
Who knows? Maybe one day, he’ll come back to Columbus.
Ohio State quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett sounds nice to me.
SONG OF THE DAY. “Dreams and Nightmares” - Meek Mill.
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