Wednesday Skull Session

Wednesday's Skull Session will offer some commentary on things happening in the world of college athletics. Ohio State fans are still riding high from the demolition of Penn State the week prior. It was, at long last, the blowout humiliation of another conference team for which we were waiting this season.

Whether it's too little, too late is a topic for Dan Wolken to discuss. Someone's gotta move those goalposts, and I don't see any of you people doing it.

On that note, why is Wisconsin great when we can't run up the score on it, but not good enough to rank in the top 20?

Anyway, this session starts with a discussion of the depth chart for the Purdue game.

NEW DEPTH CHART RELEASED. Ohio State released its latest depth chart yesterday afternoon for the upcoming game against Purdue. It's more of the same.

As far as I can tell, there is one little change at defensive tackle. This week's depth chart for  Purdue has the inclusion of Michael Hill as a third-string defensive tackle, behind Michael Bennett (the starter) and Tommy Schutt. Hill, the true freshman, was not listed on last week's chart.

Further, the pecking order of Bennett and Schutt has not changed either. Even if we are to assume that it was implicit that Hill was the third-string defensive tackle behind the two, his appearance on this week's depth chart is, nominally, a change.

That's about it. I'm still watching the weakside defensive end rotation to see if and when the change comes behind Noah Spence. Both Jamal Marcus and Steve Miller are listed as sharing spot duties behind Spence, but Marcus appears to be getting most of the snaps when Spence needs a breather.

I think Marcus is quietly playing some of the best football of anyone on the team right now. There were occasions when his mere presence last week incuded a flinch from Penn State's left tackle. Further, there was another play in which Marcus forced a sack on Christian Hackenberg by almost throwing Zach Zwinak into his lap.

Marcus is playing very well right now. If it has not manifested on an official change in the depth chart, it has at least resulted in more playing time.

Kenny Guiton is still the first team holder.

WHO IS SHAZIER'S COMPETITION FOR THE BEDNARIK? On Monday, you were all happy to learn that Ryan Shazier's recent tear through conference play, in addition to a very good non-conference performance, has led to Shazier's inclusion as a semifinalist for the Butkus Award. Yesterday, we learned he was a semifinalist for the Bednarik Award. He is one of sixteen still in competition for the award. Shazier and Chris Borland are the only representatives from the Big Ten among the semifinalists.

A few of you may recall that I had this to say about Shazier's chances for the Bednarik Award in Eleven Warriors' preseason preview feature this August.

I am a bit skeptical he [Shazier] brings home the Bednarik Award, the Nagurski Trophy, or the Lombardi Award. All three awards are more "general" awards, given to either the best defenseman (Bednarik, Nagurski), or the best among several similar positions, including both sides of the ball (Lombardi). These awards routinely go to linebackers, so that is not the issue. Shazier winning any one of these awards means that Jadaveon Clowney would not win one of these awards. Clowney could be a preseason favorite to win all of these accolades.

Funny thing about that; Clowney did not make the cut. Even if I was quick to note in the very next paragraph that Clowney is as much hype as reality, that's still a swing and a miss on my part.

So who should Ohio State fans wish to see do poorly down the stretch if Shazier is to solidify his claim to the Bednarik? The two people I thought would be the main competition for Shazier for the Butkus Award (Kyle Van Noy [BYU], C.J. Mosley [Alabama]) are also semifinalists. Van Noy is leading the Cougars with 10.5 TFLs on the season and four sacks. He also has an interception return for a touchdown, which may be important because Manti Te'o made that a linebacker stat now, I guess. Mosley is leading the Crimson Tide in tackles (59) and TFLS (5.5). Alabama is so dominant in most aspects of its defense, that Mosley's stats may seem meager by comparison.

Lamarcus Joyner may be a bit of a dark horse, especially if he builds his resume down the stretch. He was exceptional in the game against Clemson.

Ohio State football has yet to boast a Bednarik Award winner, so Shazier picking it up would be kind of cool.

Chris Borland will play against Iowa on Saturday.

CHRIS BORLAND RETURNS TO ACTION. Wisconsin linebacker, and fellow Butkus and Bednarik semifinalist with Ryan Shazier, will return to action this week for the Badgers' game against Iowa.

Borland suffered the injury in question against Illinois, a strained hamstring. Fortunately for Gary Andersen, the injury was suffered against a team that Wisconsin had no issue routing with Borland on the sideline after the injury in question. Further, Wisconsin had a bye the week after that. Andersen noted the timing of the bye was fortuitous.

"He would not have played last Saturday," Wisconsin coach Gary Andersen said. "It came at a great time for Chris because I know how much it means to him and how much it means for us to have him on the field. And, for our football team, we took advantage of it, tried to get our legs back underneath us as much as possible."

Ohio State has already defeated Wisconsin, and may freeze it from the Big Ten title game before the trip to Ann Arbor with wins over comparatively hapless teams like Purdue, Illinois, and Indiana. I mention it because Wisconsin has one interesting leverage over Ohio State football at the moment. Wisconsin may be a prohibitive favorite to sweep offensive player of the year, defensive player of the year, and probably coach of the year in the Big Ten.

Brian Bennett (yes, I know...) released his latest power rankings for the Graham–George Offensive Player of the Year and Nagurski–Woodson Defensive Player of the Year. Melvin Gordon is the favorite to win the former, and Chris Borland (at least for Bennett) is the favorite to win the latter.

I'm not inclined to argue against Gordon. Ohio State fans can brag about shutting down Gordon, but he has been phenomenal in a conference full of A) questionable offensive talent, or B) Ohio State talent that has missed games for one reason or the other (i.e. Carlos Hyde, Braxton Miller).

Borland, though? I don't know. He's good, and was difficult for Ohio State in the game in Columbus, but the homer in me doesn't believe he's "Shazier good". With Borland returning to action against Iowa, he may not miss a step in competing for the Nagurski–Woodson Defensive Player of the Year award. To that extent, it's worth mentioning.

Bennett's column doesn't mention the race for the Hayes-Schembechler Coach of the Year award, the hyphenated trophy for Big Ten coach of the year that I correctly guessed because, well, what else was it going to be? However, my feeling is Gary Andersen wins it and probably should. Ohio State has not won the award since 1979, when Earle Bruce won it in his first year for going undefeated.

Quite frankly, it should stay that way. No Ohio State football coach should ever win the award again. John Cooper didn't get it for a mid-1990s renaissance, nor did Jim Tressel win it for owning the last decade. Why should Urban Meyer win it for anything? I think never winning that award again, with a coach poised to dominate the league like his predecessor, would be very cool.

MISCELLANY. Our long national nightmare, the NBA, resumed its regular season yesterday evening. The Pacers beat the Magic in the first game of the evening... The Cleveland Browns franchise is so stupid it's almost depressing... Well, this is at least novel. The kicker missed the guy wide open on the corner route, though... Are you going to Ohio State's game against Illinois in Champaign? Well, don't count on seeing Nathan Scheelhaase's father there... Stanford loses starting defensive end to season-ending pectoral injury... Gus Malzahn has to file a report to the SEC because Bert does Bert things... This Week in Schadenfreude... Connor Shaw is contagious... Bill Belichick, channeling his inner college student for Halloween...