Skull Sesssion: Buying J.T. Barrett Stock, Judgment Day for Nate Ebner, and Tyquan Lewis Loses a Truck

By D.J. Byrnes on July 18, 2016 at 4:59 am
Gareon Conley trained like a Buckeye for the July 18th 2016 Skull Session.
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This is it. The last week of true #offseason before Big Ten Media Days next week. Let's zip up our fire suits, lock hands, and moonvault over this sorry-ass week like the Macho Man (peace be upon him) would want us to.

 BUY, BUY, BUY. J.T. Barrett dominated the competition during a breakout redshirt freshman season in 2014.

While splitting time with Cardale Jones in 2015, Barrett often looked timid and inaccurate. With Jones in the NFL and another year of familiarity under Tim Beck's belt, Ohio State fans and the national media are high on Barrett returning to form in 2016.

From landof10.com:

Even if the Buckeyes roll through the regular season, capture the Big Ten title and subsequently advance to the College Football Playoff final, Barrett would still need to average three touchdowns for that 15-game campaign. (For a 14-game season, would need to average 3.21 TDs to match the 2014 tally.)

Within that context, of his 23 outings at Ohio State, Barrett fell short of three touchdowns (passing/rushing) 10 different times; and during that career span, the junior-to-be averaged only 1.96 TDs per game.

However, if we remove the first two games of 2014 – freshman orientation period – and first four games of 2015  – when splitting time with Jones – Barrett’s per-game touchdown average jumps to 2.93. With this change, we’re now in the ballpark of 40 TDs.

Speaking of which, if Barrett plans on improving his Heisman-voting status from 2014 (5th overall), he’ll need at least 40 scores to seal the deal.

I prefer the media to hate my team and to be skeptical of its talent. The next person I read doubting Barrett in 2016 will be the first, however.

I've been buying Barrett stock since Notre Dame's leprechaun succumbed to kidney shots in Arizona back in January. And while I feel good about the buying binge, it's not guaranteed.

I'm not ready for a world in which Barrett looks lost and inaccurate, but it's a possibility. I don't expect him to smoke Oklahoma, either. It's going to take a few weeks sync the moving parts of Ohio State's offense.

Sure, they'll roll Bowling Green and Tulsa, but the defense will need to carry the day if they're to beat Oklahoma Week 3 in Norman.

 EBNER'S OLYMPIC FATE. UPDATE (9:01 a.m.): Ebner is in!


Nate Ebner is a lot like you and me in that he can quit his day job at age 27 to pursue Olympic glory... and actually have a decent chance at making the cut in a sport in which he moonlights.

Ebner will find out if he's heading to Rio later today.

From usatoday.com:

"I think he’s got as good of a shot as a lot of people," team captain Madison Hughes said recently. "I think he’s got a decent chance of being there.”

[...]

"I'll be in great shape, able to run for days," said Ebner, acknowledging he's never had to switch from rugby to football in such a compressed time period and well aware he'll have to quickly pack on football weight.

"I'll have to get used to my neck muscles holding my helmet, that will be one of the bigger adjustments."

As I've said: This is a win-win for him, and he should serve as an inspiration to every member of Buckeye Kingdom.

 THANK YOU, FIRE DEPARTMENT. It sure looks like Tyquan Lewis had a helluva weekend:

This is why I love Twitter. An Ohio State defensive end posts a photo of a burnt-out truck with minimal context, and I'm left to wonder, "Is this an organized crime syndicate sending a message?"

Jokes aside, I would already be furious if I were forced to eat at KFC, let alone coming out to one of my car's back panels melted like I left it in a running microwave.

The good news for Lewis is if he puts in another season like last year he'll have enough money to buy 10 of those trucks by this time next year.

 THE GREATEST TATTOO EVER. Another reason I love Twitter: Strangers send me tweets like this on a random Saturday afternoon.

Skull Session culture out here influencing bossy tattoos. I LOVE THIS GAME, FOLKS!

(I assume he meant it'd be bad karma if he hadn't gotten it.)

The Cleveland Cavaliers may never lose another game as long as Larbon Jim, the Kang, still draws breath in the NBA.

 THOSE WMDs. These disaster machines could help humanity prepare for cataclysms... The life of an unaccompanied minor... Step inside the church of Chili's... Army SOF to trade Androids for iPhones... The Yosemite Horror... Does Johnny Manziel even want to play football again?

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