Friday Skull Session: Buckeye Business Booming, Road Warrior Warinner, and Archie on Cook's Cold Shoulder

By D.J. Byrnes on December 11, 2015 at 4:59 am
You just got Marshall'd, son.
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This week's NSFW ANTI-WORK #BANGERS:

 BUCKEYE BUSINESS BOOMINGOhio State, as a #brand and university, is booming. The football team is a pillar of that growth. 

Now, we have some numbers. Ohio State surpassed Alabama and is in waters with whales like Texas.

From bizjournals.com:

Revenue generated by Ohio State's self-sustaining department of more than 30 men's and women's sports climbed nearly 19 percent to $171 million, up from $144 million a year earlier.

Over the same period, Alabama’s fell 1 percent to about $151 million, compared with $153 million in the 2014 fiscal year.

Ohio State's rival, the University of Michigan, generated athletic revenue of $132 million during the 2015 fiscal year, down 3 percent from $136 million a year earlier.

Texas, the biggest financial whale in the country, hauled $180 million (up from $161 million the year prior). Imagine if it had a football team that was watchable. 

 ON THE ROAD WITH ED WARINNER. Nick Saban created headlines Thursday with this:

Is there a silkier ride than a helicopter? Not for my pennies. Planes must be landed at airports. Helicopters can land damn near anywhere. 

But if Saban leads the rock star lifestyle, Slob Commander Ed Warinner leads the indie band lifestyle.

From cleveland.com:

The itinerary for Warinner's day reflected that. A pre-dawn flight from Columbus to Newark Liberty International, standing in line for his own rental car, four stops at New Jersey high school football powerhouses, then a last-minute race back to the airport to get back to Columbus in time for an event with Ohio State supporters.

[...]

Warinner booked his own flight through a travel agent that works with Ohio State. He had to be cognizant of the price. He'll spend an extra $50 or $100 to avoid crazy layovers -- time is important in this business -- but everything he buys must be approved by player personnel director Mark Pantoni.

Hotels are the same way. He's staying at airport Marriotts for $139, not the Ritz Carlton. Warinner also rented his own basic full-size sedan after contacting the high school coaches the day before -- during the few hours he gets on Sunday to be with his family -- to create his own schedule. 

The article, which is recommended in full, sheds light on quotes like this from Alabama DC/Georgia HC Kirby Smart in July:

“That cell phone you’ve got is the death of coaches,” Smart said. “Every college coach I talk to won’t say it on record, but every one’s thinking, ‘Should I go to the League?’ Because you don’t have the same requirements. It’s different. The hours are different. But the recruiting is non-stop. Today I was on the boat, and my phone was blowing up. It’s non-stop.

“You can put the phone away in pro ball. For three or four months, players have the CBA where you can’t do certain things. For us, it’s non-stop. I’ve got recruits that will text and call in the middle of the night, and I’m with my family. But you’ve got to dedicate time to that, or you can’t do it.”

People wonder why most coaches act like hired guns... well, it's from leading a life like this. These are grown men with swollen egos and chasing talented #teens around the country while sleeping in Marriotts would not be a real good time.

No wonder so many guys are willing to take "unbecoming" head coaching jobs. Head coaches must grind too, but they're not the recruiting road dogs on the staff. 

 ARCHIE SPEAKS, SPARES COOK. It's Friday, but I've got bad news if you think that's going to stop me from getting #mad online about Connor Cook:

One man, however, could assuage the pulsating pain that wracks my body as I type this. That man is the only man to win two Heisman trophies.

He is a man we've all come to know and love.

He is Archie Griffin.

From sportingnews.com:

AG: The conversation with Connor went fine. That was an awkward exchange, no question about it. But at the time, I didn’t realize it.

The next day I started getting a lot of calls and I was really wondering what they were all about. Then someone sent a copy of the exchange to my wife and we started looking at it and I said “wow.” It surprised me. When I got home to Columbus from Indianapolis I got a call from Connor Cook and he apologized for that exchange. He certainly didn’t want it to come off the way that it did and he looked at the video and was surprised at how it came off.

It looked a lot worse than it really was and Connor was very apologetic that it came off that way. He really was appalled by the way it came off. Connor’s coach Mark Dantonio also called me and I know as an organization they were sorry. I accepted Connor’s apology and I think he was sincerely sorry.

When it comes to Archie, I'm basically the seedy figure in the back of an entourage that's wishing somebody would. (It must be the Eastmoor connection because it's not like I grew up watching him rampage through the Big Ten.)

Connor Cook is lucky Archie called off his goon squad, too. Because I was ready to go to jail over some #disrespekt.

 SAM HUBBARD RECOGNIZED. Inferior teams would've given Sam Hubbard more tread this season. Instead, he cut his teeth in Joey Bosa's shadow. 

Hubbard finished the regular season with 24 tackles, 7 tackles for loss, and 5.5 sacks. It was good enough to earn the redshirt freshman All-American honors by USA Today.

USA TODAY FRESHMAN ALL-AMERICAN TEAM
OFFENSE DEFENSE SPECIALISTS
QB: JOSH ROSEN, UCLA DL: HERCULES MATA'AFA, WASHINGTON STATE K: GREG HUEGEL, CLEMSON
RB: MIKE WARREN, IOWA STATE DL: WALTER BRADY, MISSOURI P: COREY FATONY, MISSORUI
RB: SAQUON BARKLEY, PENN STATE DL: TERRY BECKNER JR., MISSOURI RET: CHRISTIAN KIRK, TEXAS A&M
WR: CALVIN RIDLEY, ALABAMA DL: SAM HUBBARD, OHIO STATE  
WR: RICHIE JAMES, MIDDLE TENEESSEE STATE LB: CAMERSON SMITH, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA  
WR: COURTLAND SUTTON, SOUTHERN METHODIST LB: AZEEZ AL-SHAAIR, FLORIDA ATLANTIC  
OL: MITCH HYATT, CLEMSON LB: MALIK JEFFERSON, TEXAS  
OL: ROSS PIERSCHBACHER, ALABAMA CB: IMAN MARSHALL, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA  
OL: WILL NOBLE, HOUSTON CB: KAREEM ORR, ARIZONA STATE  
OL: WILL CLAPP, LOUISIANA STATE S: DERWIN JAMES, FLORIDA STATE  
OL: CONNOR WILLIAMS, TEXAS S: JORDAN WHITEHAD, PITTSBURGH  

*Pencils Sam Hubbard in for massive 2016 campaign*

 MISS YOU, TOM HERMAN. Please make this MENSA member the next coach of Ohio State:

 THOSE WMDs. Ancient wand found in the Levant... On the two greatest high school quarterbacks in Montana history... North Korea: Not fans of Goodfellas... Orangutans love magic... Happiness doesn't bring health... Top news photos from 2015.

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