Skull Session: A Trash Urban Meyer Take, Buckeyes Get #1Strong, and Zach Harrison Warms to Larry Johnson

By D.J. Byrnes on June 24, 2017 at 4:59 am
Comrade Dwayne Haskins nationalizes the June 24 2017 Skull Session
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Today's Skull Session is dedicated to all brave Ohioans with a glint in their eye stepping onto the shores of Put-In-Bay this morning blissfully unaware their life is about to take a turn for the worse due to $80 worth of strawberry daiquiris (those things sneak up on you).

ICYMI:

Word of the Day: Fug.

 DON'T TALK TO ME 'TIL I'M MAD ONLINE. Some people like to start their day by going on a 10-mile run, drinking a cup of coffee, or cooking up a nutritionally balanced breakfast for fuel throughout the day.

As the smartest person alive, I prefer to start my day working myself into a frothy self-righteous rage over the world not working exactly the way it should. When I awoke yesterday to this in my inbox, I almost had an aneurysm before I could brush the Starcat off my legs to get out of bed.

Folks, a previously unknown columnist libeled the local coach by using an inspirational talk to a youth camp to harpoon his program's culture... from a decade ago.

From Ron Higgins of nola.com:

"What do you think when you walk in that lousy high school, where it's a mess, stuff everywhere, kids wearing T-shirts that don't match," [Meyer said]. They look like hell, disrespect their coaches. I watch that practice, how do you think it looks? Awful. We won't normally take a young man from that school, because it'll take us two years to get that mentality out of them."

Really?

Meyer couldn't get that mentality out of his players at Florida. And in the end, his players owned the program and they owned him, because the stress he had trying to manage that zoo led to him quitting coaching in 2010 for a year. He re-surfaced as predicted at Ohio State in 2012 where his annual players arrest average has dropped from five to two.

Back in the day I would have driven naked to New Orleans and demanded to fight this gentleman. Now I just chuckle and wonder how desperate you have to be to meet a deadline to take a piss like that in the area paper of record. Love "the biz" in 2017, baby.

(Spoiler: The article doesn't mention a cancerous culture in Columbus. Weird, I know.)

 YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK. Ohio State football is out of season, but the grind never stops for a team with national title hopes. The Buckeye media team released another video Friday showcasing more of the team's summer workouts in Meyer's quest for his team to become #1Strong.

Ohio State is dumping everybody this year. Michigan better start canning foods and lacing up their diapers. Nuclear winter is coming.

 BUCKS HUNT WHALE. Olentangy Orange defensive end Zach Harrison will likely be the top overall prospect in the 2019 class, and it's easy to see why.

See if you can guess which one is him:

Zach Harrison with Michigan football commits

Meyer and Mark Pantoni will find kids in Idaho if they think he comes from noble stock and can obliterate a quarterback. They would've found him anyway, but it helps he's right up the road.

It also helps the Buckeyes employ Larry Johnson Sr.

From the Ohio State beat Godfather, Tim May, of The Columbus Dispatch:

He’s considered a premium target by Ohio State, and also has offers from Alabama, Notre Dame, Michigan, Michigan State, Southern California and Stanford, among many others. So reporters who had watched the OSU camp were intent on not letting him slip away without gathering an update, even if it was apparent that Harrison believes the less said the better.

“We worked a little bit on stuff,” Harrison said of his interaction with defensive line coach Larry Johnson. He added about Johnson, “I like him a lot. He’s a good person more than he’s a good football coach. And he’s a pretty good football coach, too.”

But when asked whether he would visit other schools this summer, Harrison said, “I’m not sure.” And when asked if he was close to a decision, he offered a flat “no” without breaking stride.

Sounds like Ohio State has a head start in the recruiting game. I don't expect Meyer and his staff to fumble a gem unearthed that close to home. Same with Jackson Carman.

 HOLTMANN DOES MORE GOOD THINGS. We won't see Chris Holtmann's on-court product for another couple of months. But it'd be hard to criticize how he's handled his first couple weeks on the job.

Holtmann will strive for a competitive out-of-conference schedule, which will probably cause growing pains but will benefit the program in the long run.

From dispatch.com:

“You’ll see this, and you can hold me to it, but I think if I’m going to err I’m going to err on the side of it being more challenging than not challenging in the non-conference,” Holtmann said today.

Last year, only four of Ohio State’s 13 non-conference opponents were ranked in the top 100 nationally by KenPom.com. Of those four, one was an ACC-Big Ten Challenge game, one was part of the conference’s involvement in the Gavitt Games and another was part of the CBS Sports Classic that the Buckeyes have re-upped for another three years. Ohio State’s non-conference schedule was ranked 240th nationally by KenPom.

Other notes of interest to the fans, Ohio State will revamp its strength program and a return of JaQuan Lyle isn't in the cards. 

Holtmann's hiring is proof, in the end, the offseason #content gods always come through when you need them most.

 BUCKEYE BANDIT PINCHED. Another chapter in the American justice system reached its final page Friday when the ballad of the Buckeye Bandit ended with a 20-year prison sentence, with more charges possible down the road after investigators comb a litany of suspected crimes.

From 10tv.com:

Buckeye Bandit to the Clink for 20 Years
From the 10TV Broadcast.

The bank robber known as the ‘Buckeye Bandit’ was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday.

Twenty-seven-year-old Ikechi Emeaghara pleaded guilty to eight counts of armed bank robbery back in March.

According to court documents, Emeaghara displayed a weapon and demanded cash from banks in central Ohio at the following dates and locations:

  • October 31, 2013 at the Wesbanco Bank on South Stygler Road in Gahanna
  • November 30, 2013, at the Cooper State Bank on West 5th Avenue in Columbus
  • December 6, 2013 at the Wesbanco Bank on South Stygler Road in Gahanna
  • July 9, 2014 at the Smart Federal Credit Union on North High Street in Columbus
  • January 12, 2015 at the Cooper State Bank on Sawmill Road in Columbus
  • April 26, 2015 at the Cooper State Bank on Sawmill Road in Columbus
  • March 17, 2016 at the First Merit Bank on East Powell Road in Powell
  • October 21, 2016 at the Key Bank on Frantz Road in Columbus

Touché to the Buckeye Bandit, who pulled the greatest false flag operation Central Ohio has ever seen.

From 10tv.com in November:

The Buckeye Bandit got his nickname by wearing Ohio State gear as he robbed countless banks and pharmacies.

One known fact friends say is Ikechi Emeaghara is a Michigan fan.

The only sensible response in my eyes is robbing Detroit area banks in a Tom Brady jersey.

 THOSE WMDs. Deputies raid problem home in The Villages... Challingsworths hope their tragedy can combat heroin... Nursing home workers still posting nude and vulgar images of residents on Snapchat... The world of Miami's top crime reporter... Moneyball draft 15 years later.

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