Skull Session: Lessons from Lee Tressel, Marc Loving Works Out, and Cardale Jones the Odd Man Out

By D.J. Byrnes on June 16, 2017 at 4:59 am
Tyquan Lewis powers up for the june 16 2017 Skull Session
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Friday! Let's pretend to work until noon before leaving at lunch hour for the pool and not returning until Monday.

Meanwhile, I can't stop laughing at Urban Meyer's reaction in this video:

ICYMI:

Word of the Day: Effulgence.

 LESSONS FROM UP THE TOTEM POLE. While Rick Pitino becomes the latest pawn knocked off the board, Jim "El Chaleco" Tressel continues proselytizing in far-flung regions of the country out of the reach of the NCAA's Pinkertons.

During a stop at a luncheon in Pennsylvania's Mercer County, Tressel spoke on his relationship with his father, Lee, who drilled an anti-snitching mantra into his son from a young age. 

From sharonherald.com:

"He taught me a million lessons," Tressel reflected, his bespectacled eyes twinkling. "Probably one of the best ... is that my dad always used to say, 'You'll have a thousand opportunities in your life ... to keep your mouth shut. Use every one of 'em.'"

Lee also faced a choice these soft Generation Z (that's right folks, us Millennials are like 30 now so we're off the hook for our nation's decay) recruits couldn't relate: Play football or kill Nazis.

He chose killin' Nazis.

"At that time (World War II) was escalating. ... He had a great spring game. He scored two touchdowns, threw a touchdown to Les Horvath (1944 Heisman Trophy winner)," Jim Tressel recalled. "But when spring practice ended he sent my mom a postcard ... and he said, 'Dear Eloise, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I'm going to the recruiting station tomorrow. I'll see you next Tuesday.' 

"I still have that postcard," Jim Tressel noted, before continuing, "As fate would have it, and I'm proud of what happened, he decided when he went to the recruiting station ... he knew what needed to be done on behalf of our country. He needed to enlist. ... Like so many of the brave men and women did at that time, they totally put aside what was important to them, because the world needed the United States. ... And they didn't even know the people they were fighting on behalf of. They just knew that the world needed them at that moment.

"And it's now our responsibility as fathers."

Wise words from a man obviously too good for the vipers' pit of college football. His railroading from the sport would make me angrier if it didn't lead to the Meyer Era.

 HAWKS HAVE TWO FIRST-ROUNDERS. Marc Loving's NBA dreams aren't dead yet:

Watch Loving turn into an All-NBA player. That's the only way the last few years of Thad Matta's tenure could get stranger.

 DOLO ON THE ROPES? The Buffalo Bills employ a new coach and general manager other than the ones who drafted Cardale Jones in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft. 

Though Jones hasn't been cut, it appears he could be the odd man out in the impending Bills QB derby. And he's finding it tough to make the most of the limited opportunities in practice.

From espn.com:

Jones' reps have been limited in practices this spring, which foreshadows him landing on the roster bubble by the start of training camp next month.

[...]

"You kind of sit around all day, try to go in there. You wait on your opportunity all day," Jones said after practice, later clarifying he meant he sat around because of the length of Yates' and Peterman's drives. "Your number is called, and you kind of didn't take advantage of it.

"I just checked it down to the running back a little too high. Just basically trying to get [the pass] over the D-line. I didn't follow through on the throw all the way and it sailed over his head and right into the linebacker's hands."

If the Bills can't see his talent, there's only one thing left for him to do: Force a trade to the hometown Cleveland Browns and lead them to the Super Bowl. It's the only way.

 HOPE THE CRIMINAL CRUNKS HAVE 4G LTE. Folks, Painesville Municipal Court Judge Michael A. Cicconetti is at it again. A 26-year-old woman accused of driving drunk found herself in Cicconnetti's court this week, and he demanded she downloaded mobile ride-sharing apps as part of her punishment.

From news-herald.com:

As of late May, the judge known internationally for his creative sentences began requiring OVI offenders to download the Uber and Lyft apps to their smartphones and enter a credit card number as a condition of probation and to inspire them not to drink and drive.

“It’s not one of those unusual sentences. There’s nothing crazy about it,” Cicconetti said. “It’s just common sense. Now that we have the technology and most people have the ability to do that, why not make it part of their sentence?

“If you can save one person from getting another OVI, one person from getting into an accident, one person from hurting somebody else, it makes sense. It’s just common sense. It doesn’t cost anybody anything to install it and activate it, and it’s far cheaper than paying the thousands of dollars you’d have to pay for another OVI.”

Cheaper than putting them in a cage for the rest of their lives, at least.

 LINCOLN RILEY HYPE. Oklahoma hired 10 coaches in the last 70 years. Eight of them were in their 30s, and six were promoted from within.

If current hype for new coach Lincoln Riley continues, he'll be the greatest Sooners coach of them all by the time Oklahoma comes to Columbus.

From yahoo.com:

During those 70 years, the program has won 76 percent of its games, seven national championships, 38 conference championships and five Heisman Trophies. So, yeah, it’s fair to say the formula has worked. Unproven head coaches and insular hires have their risks, but most of the time they have gotten it right – really right – at Oklahoma.

(The extreme outlier was Howard Schnellenberger, hired at age 60 with 17 years of head-coaching experience and a total Oklahoma outsider. He lasted one year, a colossally bad fit between great coach and great program.)

Riley checks all the traditional cream-and-crimson boxes: young, talented and an Oklahoma assistant. That’s how it was for Bud Wilkinson, promoted at age 31 and on his way to one of the greatest runs in the history of the sport. That’s how it was for Barry Switzer, promoted at 35 and destined to lead the Sooners to three national titles. Stoops was slightly different, coming to Norman from Florida, but he was 37 and a career assistant to that point.

Don't think Meyer won't look to put a crater in the new Sooner swagger cultivated by Riley. Recruiting never sleeps, after all.

 THOSE WMDs. Announcers in the Bedroom: A field guide.... New brewing degree looks to quench thirst of bubbling industry...Kazuchika Okada Is the best wrestler in the world... Remembering the murder you didn't commit... When "interesting" isn't interesting.

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