Wednesday Skull Session

By D.J. Byrnes on October 7, 2015 at 4:59 am
Erick Smith and Parris Campbell
324 Comments

ICYMI:

INDIANA: NOT KNOWN FOR DEFENSE. You knew Ezekiel Elliott ran through Indiana like an escaped felon through a stoplight. But did you know he did so basically untouched? The Slobs were moving bodies.

From CFBFilmRoom.com:

243 of Elliott’s [274] yards came prior to contact. While Elliot’s elusiveness certainly generates some missed tackles without contact, that number is simply not attainable without a dominant performance from his blockers.

It was a bold strategy to let a game-breaker like Zeke get to the second level without getting touched. Sure, it was also a bad strategy, but I'm not about to sit here and speak ill of the deceased.

THE MYTH OF J.T. BARRETT. People remember things better than they were... it's a fact of life.

Take Nintendo 64's GoldenEye, for example. Every child of the 90s swears it's a game they know and love, but if they went back and played it they'd realize it's unplayable compared to today's games. 

J.T. Barrett is far from unplayable, but his gaudy stats (and Ohio State's championship ending) made people remember Barrett at his best.

As Scout's Marcus Hartman points out: Barrett, like most athletes, had games that ranged from very good to bad. 

For me the discussion has reached a head at this point because I can't understand people still calling for a quarterback change after the Ohio State offense turned in essentially the same game two years in a row against Indiana, one with Barrett at the helm and the other with Jones. 

  • 2014: 35 points (also scored on a punt return), 225 rushing yards, 302 passing yards, two turnovers (both by the QB), 7/14 on third down, 3/4 in the red zone. 
  • 2015: 34 points, 272 rushing yards, 245 passing yards, three turnovers (one by the QB), 2/14 on third down, 2/3 in the red zone. 

The raw individual numbers tilted more in favor of the quarterback last year in large part because one of the best plays Ohio State had was the shovel pass to a receiver that for all intents and purposes is really a running play. Those accounted for at least 60 yards and two touchdowns last year against the Hoosiers. (Take 60 yards from the passing total and see what happens…) 

When Ohio State has tried to run that play this year, it’s rarely worked because the Buckeyes’ blocking on the edge has been subpar. 

I'm thankful Ohio State's faced some adversity this season, but I'm hoping it pastes Maryland by 60 on Saturday. For a team that's 5-0, I think a manhandling of a hapless Maryland team could be just what the doctor ordered for this fanbase. 

THE ORIGINS OF TYVIS. Tyvis Powell didn't put in his best performance against Indiana, but that's okay because Powell is a Buckeye through and through. In a defense filled with blue-chip talent, Powell still shines.

From ESPN.com:

Powell was a Rust Belt darling, graduating from Bedford High School in Cleveland with a stack of MAC offers. Michigan State and Minnesota also offered but other schools like Wisconsin passed. Instead, he took a chance on a program sunk deep in the sludge of big-time NCAA scandal. Powell committed to the Buckeyes' the day after Jim Tressel resigned in disgrace. In the process, he became part of an almost-mythical group Cleveland.com called The Fickell Six, comprised of recruits who came on board when the program had an uncertain future under interim head coach Luke Fickell.

"He stayed with Ohio State through all the mess," Bedford High School football coach Sean Williams told Cleveland.com. "Like I said to Tyvis, when you graduate from Ohio State, your degree will not say Jim Tressel or Urban Meyer. It will say Ohio State University."

He also stuck through a humbling redshirt process that was tough on him.

"Coming out of high school, I was known as a top player," Powell told ESPN in 2013. "Then to get here, and you're not really doing anything to contribute to the team, it really broke my heart, honestly. Back in the day, I used to write these blogs for the fans and tell them how I wanted to work hard for them, and I kind of felt like I was letting the fans down. When they told me I was redshirting, at first I was depressed about it. Now when I look back on it, I don't think I was ready to play [then]."

Darron Lee is another guy who developed under Meyer, but Lee committed to an Urban Meyer Ohio State that was coming off a 12-0 season. Tyvis Powell committed the day after Jim Tressel resigned. I don't care if his only other offer was to Saginaw State... that will always be impressive.

SILK ANSWERS THE TOUGH QUESTIONS. D'Angelo Russell made the mistake of saying Tracy McGrady "might be the Greatest of All Time" this summer.

Judging by his skittishness when asked to rank NBA players/Lakers, I assume Kobe Bryant waterboarded him:

  1. How hungry and/or drunk was the first person to ever eat a live scorpion?
  2. #Teens don't remember the Wu-Tang Clan!!!! We are truly in dark, dark times.
  3. It's a good thing I know Silk keeps a day job, because I assume anybody who overuses the "100 emoji" is an armed robbery hobbyist. 

BRING ON THOSE SCRUBS UP NORTH. I've watched every Michigan game, and it's surreal to see them play as if they have an actual coach. That said, I'm no longer tripping about The Game. I've been worried it might be the perfect storm against Ohio State, but no longer. Why? Because JIm Harbaugh is a Cracker Barrel loyalist.

Cracker Barrel is an overpriced, faux-rustic Denny's with a seedy-ass gift shop that solely exists to bilk poor Grandma out of her medication money. ("Billy Joel's greatest hits on CD!? Oh, Melvin, but I must have it!") 

You can say a lot of things about a man walking out of a Cracker Barrel, but "There goes one tough son of a bitch" isn't one of them.

THOSE WMDs. Silicon Valley's plan to turn inmates into coders... AUSTINTOWN STAND UP... Yale releases 170,000 Depression-era pics... Tuscan lake hides a 13th century town that is still visible when the water recedes... Did you know the father of American beekeeping was Ohioan?

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