Monday Skull Session

By D.J. Byrnes on July 6, 2015 at 4:59 am
108 Comments

ICYMI: Here's how well-written Nick's piece on Keanu Reeves' legendary OSU QB career was: It made people on Facebook think he thought Keanu Reeves actually played QB at Ohio State.

Oh, and Kosta Koufos has more money guaranteed to him than we've all made in our lives.

OSU NO. 1 (IN 2017). Ohio State's 2017 class was off to a legendary start before the July 4th commitment of four-star Colorado OT Jake Moretti. Ohio State's 2017 ranking is now on par with what we've come to expect under Urban Meyer.

Via 247Sports.com's 2017 class composite rankings:

nice

I love when people say I'm a homer. That'd make sense if Urban Meyer hadn't just turned a 5-7 6-7 team into a national champion in three years. What other realistic #take is out there beyond that?

If my supreme faith in Urban Meyer makes me a homer, then that's fine. I'll homer all day as long as I'm right.

CHEATIN' PENN STATE. Dear Ohio State trustees or whoever controls the money,

Please take this recruiting tool away from James Franklin immediately.

Kind regards,

Buckeye Nation.

From Dave Briggs of BCSN.tv:

With major colleges set to begin paying athletes the estimated cost of their personal expenses beyond the value of a traditional full scholarship, the varying ways schools calculate the cost-of-attendance stipend means each program is selling recruits on a different payday. 

And that’s without a single bagman in sight. 

Penn State coach James Franklin, for instance, is peddling the highest stipend in the Big Ten. Using a formula that accounts for the cost of living in rural State College, Pa., the university can now provide its scholarship athletes in all sports an additional average of $4,788 per year, far outpacing the new, nontaxable aid to be handed out by rivals Ohio State ($2,680), Michigan ($2,204), and Michigan State ($1,866). 

“I love it,” Franklin said in May. “I think it’s awesome. Because it’s something I’m going to be able to use in recruiting.”

I assume Urban Meyer has already lobbied his request for more funds. This is Ohio State we're talking about, after all, and the football team should be second to nobody in terms of financial matters.

CARDALE MUM ON #QBGEDDON. It's almost times for the #takes to decide and Ohio State's Magnificent Three to put it down on the field.

The Iron King is playing it as cool as a cucumber.

From Bill Rabinowitz of Dispatch.com:

But the two people outside the Buckeyes program who know Jones best — Michelle Nash and his Glenville High School coach, Ted Ginn Sr. — say that Jones is not dwelling on the pending quarterback competition.

“He never speaks about it at all — never,” said Nash, who entered Jones’ life as a mentor when he was 14 and soon took over the primary responsibility in raising him.

It’s not as if Jones doesn’t get asked the question often.

“I’ve seen people ask him,” Nash said. “He says, ‘It’ll be what it’ll be, but it’ll be fine.’ ”

To me, Cardale is in a win/win position. Even if he loses #QBgeddon (and I'll be damned if I ever predict that), I still think he could be a 2nd round pick if he doesn't play a snap this year.

Before you disagree with me, remember that there are only 5-8 good NFL QBs at any given time. These teams are so desperate, and Cardale has the franchise personality and tools already.

I AM SO OLD. Imagine being named after a singer who once got buck naked to sell records. This is a fate suffered by D'Angelo Russell.

From Nick Birdsong of SportingNews.com:

[D'Angelo Russell] reminded ESPN's "His and Hers" hosts Michael Smith and Jemele Hill of when they were shocked he'd never seen the video for soul singer D'Angelo's "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" in its entirety. If you're 19 and not 30, you may not have either. But the song and the video, which features the artist's then-chiseled body sans clothing, was all the rage when it dropped way, way back in 2000. 

During the interview, which also included Duke product and Chicago native Jahlil Okafor, Russell revealed his mom named him after the neo-soul crooner, who returned to the game last year with his critically-acclaimed "Black Messiah" after a 13-year hiatus.

"But I never did the research on it," Russell said. "I seen that video of him naked. I don't want nothing to do with that. I stayed away from that." 

That's up there with Lionel Messi being named after Lionel Richie and Christiano Ronaldo being named after Ronald Reagan.

My advice? Parents, just name all your kids Cardale. Ohio will be stronger for it.

THOSE WMDs. A Most Dangerous Game... The Innocent Man, Part One... They might not be pretty, but opossums are rare and important animals... How cheesy inspirational quotes are born.... I want to party with this parrot... The Troy, New York, butcher who became Uncle Sam.

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