Happy Tuesday everybody, and welcome to your morning Skull Session. Before we get into it, there's something that I need to get off my chest, and that is my own personal plea to Gary Danielson and Verne Lundquist to please, please switch to decaf/a less potent batch of cocaine before calling SEC games on CBS. Look, I'm glad you guys are excited. That's cool, football is exciting. But there is a difference between being genuinely excited over a big play and yelling WOW because someone made a routine tackle/correctly placed the ball on the tee before a kickoff/successfully completed the respiratory cycle. The SEC is a good conference that occasionally deserves the publicity it gets, but at this point I am convinced that if North Texas and Florida International University were featured on national television every week with two grown men self-flagellating themselves to the glory of all that is Sun Belt football, the national media might be just as forgiving to them as they are to some of the more mediocre or crappy teams in the SEC.
With that said, the purpose of commentators is to make the game interesting to watch regardless of the action, and in that respect at least Danielson and Lundquist are trying, which they can't really be faulted for. I mean, it's not like they've ever compared the Florida and Alabama game to the Punic Wars or something completely asinine like that.
Wait, that actually happened?
DEPTH CHART NOW PLEASE NOW. GOD. SO ANGRY. Anyway. Last week I bemoaned the lack of any real changes in the depth chart as they never seem to truly show the reality of the personnel situation and look what that gets us: a super obvious change because one of my favorite players on the team gets injured and is out for the year. Terrific. Tyler Moeller has been replaced with his backup, Christian Bryant, and Nate Oliver now becomes the #2 at Star. Redshirt Freshman Jamie Wood is now backing up Jermale Hines at FS. Our secondary just gets younger and younger but truthfully I think these guys can play, despite their lack of experience. Concerned? Yes. Worried? No. If that makes sense. Other notes:
- Guess what? Saine is still listed with Boom as 1A and 1B. As a captain, in all probability it is unlikely you'll see Saine move from this spot. What's more important is what his true role on the team evolves into, because as of now he is clearly not getting it done as a true RB.
- Stoneburner continues to be listed as the number 1 at TE, despite not playing (or even making the trip) last week. I personally think he'll be back against Indiana, but if not hopefully Fragel can step up in the passing game more than he did against Illinois.
- Even a token listing of Hall at RB would be nice. Come on guys.
Speaking Of Bryant The Dispatch has a nice article on Bryant reflecting on how he played in the Illinois game and his play. I always tend to root for guys who are undersized and/or play with a lot of emotion (see: Rolle, Brian), and at 5 foot 9 I think Bryant fits the bill. He plays with a lot of energy and is going to need it, because the defense is going to lean on him pretty significantly in the coming weeks.
That Bad Or That Good It's interesting what one game against the Michigan Wolverine secondary can do for a guy's stats. In all fairness, Tandon Doss is a terrific wideout who will be playing in the NFL, but also in all fairness, I feel I can say without hyperbole that Michigan might have the worst defense in college football. With hyperbole I can also add that the only difference between Michigan's defense and a dead raccoon in the middle of the road is that sometimes people will swerve to avoid running over the raccoon.
Doug Lesmerises' Mayan Calandar Is A Year Off Doug predicts gloom and doom for OSU in 2011, but truthfully, I don't see it. The comparison between OSU and Texas really doesn't work, given that their offense is essentially like a Pryor-less OSU offense, except all the time; OSU may be losing a lot of senior leadership and talent next year but looking at the scholarship chart objectively, the team should still be good on defense and will still have Pryor and a ridiculous stable of RBs at Tressel's disposal (and hopefully an increased willingness to use them). National Championship contender? Probably not. But will they fall out of the top 25 by week 5? I doubt it.
And Finally... To Terrelle Pryor's quad, Tyler Moeller's chest, CJ Barnett's everything, Mike Adams' shoulder, Jake Stoneburner's ankle, Mark Dantonio's heart and blood, and the collective sense of rationality and optimism that Ohio State Buckeye fans normally share in the offseason:
