Skull Session: The Talent-Laden Fiesta Bowl, Robert Smith Lands at Fox, and Malcolm Jenkins Gives Back to Columbus

By D.J. Byrnes on May 2, 2016 at 4:59 am
Tuf Borland is walking to the May 2nd 2016 Skull Session
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I'm shocked Tyvis Powell went undrafted, but picking a destination is preferable to being a sixth- or seventh-round pick. It wasn't surprising, however, a franchise like the Seahawks picked him up

ICYMI: 11W's 2016 NFL Draft hub.

 FIESTA BOWL LOOK-BACK. Ohio State dismantled Notre Dame in the 2016 Fiesta Bowl. Though we already knew the game featured myriads of NFL talent on both teams, the dust has now settled on the numbers. There were more draftees in the Fiesta Bowl than the national championship game.

From collegefootballtalk.com:

As the dust has settled in Chicago and the 2016 NFL draft has been put to bed, the tally is official: a whopping 19 Buckeyes and Fighting Irish players who took part in or were on the roster for OSU’s 16-point win in the desert were selected in the seven rounds of the annual selection meeting.

The Buckeyes, who entered Day 3 with a record 10 players drafted the first two days, finished with 12 players plucked by various NFL clubs. While that total is impressive, it falls just short of the record of 14 set by… the 2004 Buckeyes.

[...]

The Irish, meanwhile — and if you can calculate at a third-grade level — saw seven players selected in the draft.  While it was a good haul, it was tied fourth, along with Alabama and Florida, behind OSU’s 12, Clemson’s nine and UCLA’s eight.

This might raise the "What if?" specter for some fans, but I'm over it. The best team in college football doesn't always win the championship (or, for that matter, make the playoffs).

 FOX SPORTS MAKES A GOOD HIRE? FOX Sports is expected to shell out $250 million for half of the Big Ten's media rights, so former Ohio State running back Robert Smith, recently laid off by ESPN, came onto the market at the right time.

From Sports Illustrated media critic Richard Deitsch:

Big fan of Smith's work, but it's not enough to make me watch any studio show that could feature the likes of Clay Travis, Skip Bayless, or Jason Whitlock. (I don't need to leave the comfy confines of my thick skull to listen to insecure caricatures try to pass off shallow and vitriolic #sprots #takes as nuanced thinking.)

 MALCOLM JENKINS: STILL DAT DUDE. While former Ohio State players punched their tickets to the NFL on Friday, former Ohio State safety Malcolm Jenkins and his charitable foundation were helping feed and supply poor families in the streets of Columbus.

From dispatch.com:

[Friday] morning he was at the Columbus Urban League parking lot off Mount Vernon Avenue helping coordinate the second Get Ready Fest, a collaboration of his Malcolm Jenkins Foundation, Feed the Children and Teleperformance. With its mission to distribute a 25-pound box of food and a 10-pound box of personal hygiene products to 1,200 pre-identified families who can use the help, the orderly line stretched down the block.

“We’re feeding and helping over 4,500 people,” Jenkins said. “They get not only the food, but they get resources, they get haircuts, help services -- everything that they need to really get a kick start.

“Everything that we do we focus on youth, and families, and under-served communities because, you know, I’ve been blessed. There are people in need that look up to me as an athlete, that look up to everybody (including the hundreds of volunteers involved), and this is an opportunity for us to give back.”

Malcolm Jenkins is one of those guys that inspires you to do better by how they live their life. Nobody embodies a Jim Tressel player better than him. 

 LOL, WHAT? Sometimes you see bewildering things on social media, like the fact 50 Cent and Adolphus Washington are homies:

 

S/O the homie @50cent showed me mad love at my draft party. Appreciate it big homie.

A photo posted by Adolphus Washington (@awashington_92) on

 

My Monday work schedule: Hunting down how 50 Cent and Diesel Washington became homies.

 ANOTHER HIGH STREET RENOVATION. 15th Avenue and High Street used to be a main entrance into Ohio State's campus. It's undergone some changes since 1944, and it's due to for some more changes this summer.

You're never going to guess the type of building is going up the next block over!

From columbusunderground.com:

Edwards Communities received approval last week from the University Area Review Board to build a six-story, mixed-use development on the east side of High Street between 16th and 17th avenues.

Ryan Szmanski of Edwards said that work on the site could begin as soon as this summer, with a goal of opening by the start of the fall semester in 2018. The project represents the first major piece of what will be a larger transformation of the area, as laid out in Campus Partners’ 15th and High plan.

The new development will require the demolition of eight buildings, including the Wellington building at the corner of 16th and High (the former home of Bernies Bagels & Deli and Johnny Go’s House O’ Music), and the four-story Sigma Nu building at 22 East 16th.

Sure.

Is this a key building in a new economic development in the center of a growing metropolis or a building in a doctor's park in Beatrice, Nebraska?

Change is a part of life, but apparently so is the proliferation of lifeless mix-used buildings with copious windows. Given the amount of money poured into these projects, perhaps we've reached the apotheosis of Columbus creativity—a perturbing thought to say the least.

 THOSE WMDs. The woman behind the mask... 15-year-old gets his night in the cage on the fringes of MMA... Penny farthings bicycle race from 1928... A boy of unusual vision... Kenya lights world's biggest ivory bonfire, demands tusk trade ban... The producer drop changed rap.

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