Wednesday Skull Session

By Nicholas Jervey on April 17, 2013 at 6:00 am
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Hello, and welcome to the Skull Session.

There will surely be things to freak out about as the offseason progresses, but right now the Ohio State football program is running like a well-oiled machine.

Ohio State was part of College Football Live's Spring Bus Tour, and not coincidentally got a bunch of good press. Meyer was on College Football Live to talk about his team and expressed satisfaction in the improvement from the previous year, especially for the wide receivers, running backs, and tight ends; according to Meyer, 

"The tight end area is the best I've had and I had Aaron Hernandez at Florida. I have two legitimate guys that are very good blockers, good receivers, Nick Vannett and Jeff Heuerman, so we're going to utilize all of our personnel."

Hernandez made the Pro Bowl last year so, uh, high praise indeed. The Columbus Dispatch concurs in saying this year's team has fewer holes than last year's team, though it correctly points out the right tackle as being a weak point.

As a rule of thumb: when you're answering the question, "What will you do when your team loses the first game of your tenure?" in year two, the program is in a good state. Braxton Miller abandoning his bad haircut is a cherry on the sundae. (Perhaps the chocolate sprinkles.) 

 DUCKS IN MODERATE TROUBLE. When Chip Kelly left Oregon for the Philadelphia Eagles this offseason, some wondered if it had anything to do with allegations of NCAA violations. Well, wonder on.

Oregon and the NCAA have come to an agreement on a number of violations, including but not limited to paying exorbitant sums for faulty and outdated recruiting information from Will Lyles (who had impermissible contact with recruits), a number of impermissible phone calls, having too many coaches recruiting at once, and not promoting an atmosphere of compliance. In addition, there were also concerns that Oregon's penalties would be worsened by repeat offender status:

“Due to the nature, scope and duration of the time over which the violations occurred, the violations were not isolated in nature,” the report says. “Further, while the violations were not intentional in nature, many are significant and should not be considered inadvertent.”

In response to this major infractions case, The Oregonian reports that the school has proposed two years of probation for itself and a one scholarship reduction for the next three years. Oregon did manage to avoid a lack of institutional control charge, which could have been catastrophic.

Nevertheless the proposed penalties are weak, to say the least. One would think the brazenness of the head coach approving $25,000 for an influential scout to send obviously useless reports and gain access to a five-star running back would prompt heavier self-imposed penalties, but it's up to the NCAA to do more if it wants. It may; it and Oregon disagree on the importance of the Lyles violation, which Oregon portrays as a misdemeanor and the NCAA as a centerpiece. After the past few years of turmoil in the NCAA system, though, I wouldn't mind this being the new standard for scandal.

A 24 second shot clock would make Bo Ryan go catatonic.Are shorter shot clocks in college basketball's future?

 SHORTER SHOT CLOCKS. A significant number of people think that college basketball has been on a decline for decades and want to change that. One particular complaint is the pacing of the games: the 35-second shot clock allows some teams to stall and stagnate the game to their advantage (cough, cough).

In a radio interview with WWLS in Oklahoma City, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo suggested that changing the shot clock length had been seriously discussed by some coaches. Transcription from the radio interview by ESPN's Eamon Brennan:

“One of the guys I have great respect for — Johnny Dawkins, who is at Stanford — and we were in our meetings the other day, and he said, ‘We have the slowest game in the world,’” Izzo said. “As you say, the international [game] is less [slow]. The pro is less. The women’s is less. And here we are with 35 [seconds].

“It was talked about at our meetings in Atlanta,” Izzo said. “You know the bureaucracy of committees and what it’s got to do, but I think there is getting to be a growing run at maybe doing that, and I think more coaches are in favor of it.”

Though regularizing college basketball's shot clock may be desirable, whether it will actually increase tempo and scoring remains to be seen. Back in 1990, when college basketball was at its fastest (per Luke Winn of Sports Illustrated), the shot clock was 45 seconds long. After the implementation of the 35-second shot clock in 1994, points per game and tempo each dropped. Offenses became more efficient, but efficiency isn't what the complainants are looking for, rather raw scoring.

Winn suggests that coaches became much more conservative with the transition to a 35-second shot clock; how would coaches react to a 30-second clock, or a 24-second clock? Would coaches resort to applying full court pressure more often? Would more possessions result in contested threes? Would the officiating of games change, as Michigan coach John Beilein would like? The law of unintended consequences is sure to show up here; best to do some research first.

 HELLO KEVIN MCGUFF. After a lengthy coaching search, Ohio State has hired its new women's basketball head coach in Kevin McGuff. McGuff, who comes to Ohio State by way of the University of Washington, has a career record of 255-99.

An interesting bit about McGuff is his history with Thad Matta. McGuff coached at Xavier for nine years before leaving for Washington in 2011, coaching alongside Matta for two seasons. McGuff was not the initial choice for the position, but it's useful that fit does not appear to be a concern. Any kind of cross-promotion between the programs because of McGuff's and Matta's relationship would be beneficial.

Meanwhile, former head coach Jim Foster may not be done with coaching yet. Wish him the best of luck in finding an opening.

 RIP PAT SUMMERALL. Pat Summerall, longtime commentator, passed away at the age of 82 on Tuesday. Summerall was best known to national audiences for his composed NFL commentary and to video gamers for his role in the Madden series. To Ohio State fans, he has a special distinction: emcee for Zack Dumas' greatest hits collection. Summerall was great at his job and the voice of pro football, and he will be missed.

 LINK DUMP.  This Georgia football fan song is terrible, but at least it's not Freakbass bad... Want to apply for the OSU hockey job?... Modeling the 2013 Big Ten season... Marcus Lattimore has a grody surgery scar... Costa Rica plans World Cup revenge... Resigning with cake is pretty cool... Don't be that dude, bro... Some reflections on the Boston Marathon bombing.

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