Thursday Skull Session

How do, fellow Buckeye fans? My guess is that you do well enough if you're just saddling up to your desk for another day of white collar action following a hearty breakfast of pop tarts, a sausage McMuffin (no egg) or maybe a piece of cold pizza prior to your daily stroll through the drive thru for a way too expensive cup of coffee as a primer for another day of life as a working class citizen. 

Some days, you probably don't think you're lucky. You are. 

So, I finally made my way to the Mid-Ohio Food Bank after lugging around a trunk load of canned goods for a few weeks following the 11W Spring Game Banger and all I can say is that you better not take what you have for granted today. 

That place is a magnificent warehouse of caring and I was humbled to drop off 150 lbs. of food - courtesy of those of you who brought donations to the Banger - and to receive a quick tour of the facility that helps ensure a third of Ohio's hungry are able to put food on the table. 

Seriously, I know we've echoed thanks ever since the event but it really hit home for me to see people standing in line at the pantry as I dropped off your goodies ranging from Easy Mac to peanut butter to mass amounts of beef stew. 

My only regret? Judging from the racket emanating from my trunk everytime I take a sharp turn, our final tally should've been closer to 155 lbs. as I'm pretty sure there's a mini-keg of ravioli pitching back and forth with reckless abandon.

Anyhoo, I just wanted to share the final tally with everyone and offer a sincere thanks for your contributions and remind everyone that you'll have another chance to show off your philanthropic ways when Eat Too, Brutus returns in all its glory this coming October.  

BREAKING: NO ELONGATED SPIRAL IN C-BUS. Though many a football power has stumbled upon hard times in recent years for a multitude of reasons including Notre Dame, Michigan, Miami and USC, Adam Rittenberg writes no such prolonged slump looms on the horizion for Urban Meyer's Ohio State Buckeyes. 

What is lost in the euphoria is that Ohio State actually announced UFM as head coach just three days after what I hear was a 6-7 season though I personally have no recollection of such shenanigans. 

So, despite a surprise bowl ban (for those hanging their hat on Gene's words), how is that the Buckeyes will manage to avoid a recession of awesome? According the Smith, it's simple:

"We're still The Ohio State University, a great brand. It's not a program that's been devastated by the challenges we have. When you can attract a good leader like Urban on a platform like The Ohio State University ... we weren't going to spiral. 

We're kind of too big to fail and we're sometimes successful in spite of ourselves because of the platform. Archie Griffin, John Hicks, Chris Spielman, all those guys rallied to support this program. They're heavily engaged. [Ohio State has] over 400,000 living alums. A stadium that seats 105,000 every game. Thirty-six sports. It's a great brand."

Of course, it's not just Smith trumpeting the virtues of Ohio State as Meyer has been a beast on the recruiting trail and in the locker room as he works to reinvigorate a group of players scarred by flames of the NCAA and the media in addition to a lame duck coaching staff that collectively struggled to keep players on the razor's edge. According to Stoneburner, Urban's message has gotten through to the players and they feel a sense of accountability for laying a new foundation:

"We got one of the best coaches in college football. He wouldn't have come here if he thought we were going to [struggle]. His mindset is he's not going to let us do that. It's Ohio State. We've been great for so long. Why let something bad that happened for a year ruin the next three or four years?  If you look at this place -- the coaches, the players, the recruiting -- it's going to be a long time before Ohio State's on the downslide."

Is it September 1st yet?!?

ICE COLD DRAFT. Personally, I don't really care much for the neverending hype of the NFL Draft and I can barely force myself to be aware of exactly when it goes down. The subsequent grades heaped upon each team's draft effort further triggers my gag reflex as I have no idea how the experts truly know how everything will pan out. 

That said, I do keep a crooked eye on my phone in and around the time former Buckeyes are projected to get the call. This year, it wasn't really all that interesting as I wasn't really that consumed with just how far Mike Adams might fall for failing a drug test that came with roughly 22 years notice. 

Thankfully, Mike Huguenin of Yahoo! provided some post-draft nuggets worth burning:

• While the SEC had 42 draft picks, the B1G was 2nd with 41. 
• Since 2000, the Buckeyes have had 83 players drafted. Second most in conference? Wisky with 57. Michigan is 3rd with 54. 
• Since 2000, the Buckeyes have had 17 first round selections followed in conference by Wisky's 11, Penn State's 10 and Michigan's nine.  
• OSU's 83 picks is tops in the nation since 2000 followed by Miami and USC with 81 each. Michigan is 14th with 54. 
• The Buckeyes rank 3rd in 1st round selections since 2000 with 17 behind Miami (26) and USC (18). Michigan ranks 15th. 

Wanna race? I didn't think so. 

JESSE STILL DOESN'T GET THE RUN HE DESERVES. In case you missed it, the PBS series American Experience ran their Jesse Owens biography on Tuesday and the program was nothing short of amazing. You can check it out online here. 

The Dispatch's Mike Arace caught it and wrote a great piece on the Buckeye legend that deserves your attention. He highlights some of Jesse's greatest feats including a fairly decent afternoon at the Big Ten Championships back in 1935:

On May 25, 1935, at the Big Ten championships in Ann Arbor, Mich., Owens entered the national consciousness. He put aside a back injury, tied the world record for the 100-yard dash and broke the world records for the broad jump, the 220-yard dash and the 220-yard low hurdles. In the process, he also set world records for the 200-meter dash and the 200-meter low hurdles, and he did it all in a span of 45 minutes.

So, what did you accomplish in the last 45 minutes? I managed to wake up, take a deuce shower, throw on some clothes and drive to work. And I'm pretty sure I strained my hamstring in the process. 

What is truly and an amazingly sad commentary on our country at the time, following Jesse's giant F-You to Hitler at the '36 Olympics in Berlin, he still had to take the freight elevator to attend a dinner in his honor in NYC. 

Do you part and remind everyone you come in contact today of Jesse's overwhelming greatness. To this day, his legacy doesn't get its proper due and that's a shame. 

BOLLMAN COLLEGE. Not that you're surprised but according to folks like Dr. Saturday v2.0, the Boston College Eagles football squad is flirting with becoming the equivalent of your beer league flag football squad. 

In one of many questionable decisions, BC AD Gene DiFilippo fired head coach Jeff Jagodzinski in 2008 after the dude led the completely irrelevant Eagles to a 20-8 record in two years including two Atlantic Divison titles and posted the best winning percentage as a BC head coach in roughly 60 years.

To ensure their demise, the Eagles recently hired former Buckeye offensive line saboteur Jim Bollman, then drew 200 fans to their spring game and now comes word they've kicked their all-time leading rusher, Montel Harris, off the team for continuous violations of team rules. 

This comes on the heels of the spring game in which the the offensive line, under the tutelage of the Walrus, helped the offense turn in a "complete mess". Sound familiar? 

I feel bad for BC but it's great to remind ourselves just how lucky we are to no longer be subjected to that clown show. 

(SAUSAGE) LINKS. Floor it! Turn left! Floor it! Turn Left! Bear Bryant will make his NASCAR debut this weekend... Marcus Hartman has a nice piece on UFM's malleable playoff stance(s)... 614 Magazine's Best People/Places list... So, is it me or this award a tad overly specific?... A list of the top ACC coache..never mind, just wait for the video to load and check out Melanie Collins... Bacon taco shell.