Wednesday's Skull Session will offer some commentary on things happening in the world of college football and Ohio State football as Ohio State again looks toward a highly anticipated conference game at night, this one on the road at Northwestern.
NEW DEPTH CHART RELEASED. Ohio State released an updated depth chart for the Northwestern game that has a few changes from last week's Wisconsin depth chart. I will discuss the changes here.
The most obvious change is at safety. Christian Bryant, the senior captain, will be sidelined for the remainder of the year with an ankle injury. As such, he is no longer on the depth chart.
Corey "Pitt" Brown is listed as the starter with Tyvis Powell behind him. Right now, it is unclear what exactly this means for the game on Saturday and how playing time will be allocated. Vonn Bell, another option at safety, was not listed on the depth chart.
Jordan Hall is interestingly still listed as a first-team tailback, despite having only one rush in Saturday's game against Wisconsin. Hyde, the second-team tailback, had 17 carries by comparison.
Braxton Miller's performance in his first game back from injury, a mostly problem-free game both rushing and throwing the ball, was enough to solidify his position as starting quarterback. Kenny Guiton is no longer listed as "OR" behind Miller on the depth chart.
That is about it for changes on the depth chart. Kenny Guiton is still the first-team holder.
NAVY-AIR FORCE GAME CANCELED FOR SATURDAY. I will proceed carefully with this item in the Skull Session. Rules about political commentary on this site will still be observed.
Long story short, the ongoing government shutdown in Washington has led to repercussions in the world of college football. Announcements about service academy athletics cancelations are coming rapidly, being cited as an "inessential service" of the Department of Defense. The Air Force-Navy game will not be played. Army's game at Boston College this weekend is still a go as of right now, but is in obvious jeopardy.
For more than one reason (confined strictly to the apolitical world of the college football fan), this is very unfortunate. The Air Force game at Navy was scheduled for 11:30 a.m. on CBS, which would have saved all college football fans everywhere thirty minutes of ESPN's College Gameday. The sooner college football fans have an incentive to turn off ESPN's Saturday morning programming, the better. This Commander-in-Chief trophy game would have been one such incentive.
Further, CBS' SEC-leaning studio and booth crews may be cumbersome, but CBS' overall presentation for college football games is slick. CBS' college football theme befits a service academy game. To be honest, I think it would be cool to have a big Ohio State game broadcast on that network. The last time that happened was 1998, when Ohio State visited West Virginia.
Since all service academy athletics are at risk of being put on hiatus right now, the consequences go beyond just these immediate football games. For example, Penn State's first hockey game this season against Army, tentatively scheduled for next Friday, is in jeopardy. The service academies' respective athletics websites are already posting notices about canceling or postponing events in non-revenue sports, like soccer.
Should this linger for the next few weeks, Notre Dame may feel in a bind as well. It has a football game scheduled at Air Force at the end of October, and is scheduled to host Navy on the first weekend of November.
To the best of my knowledge, no Ohio State sport is in a position to be affected on the margins by this development.
Venric Mark, or "Marknado". VENRIC MARK RETURNS THIS SATURDAY. I remember Northwestern fans remarking how similar their game at Cal was to our game at Cal. We both won late kickoffs on the West Coast by about two touchdowns.
Further, we both did so without the starting quarterback and the starting tailback, though the absence of Northwestern's players were due to in-game injuries. Kain Colter, Northwestern's starting quarterback, suffered an upper body injury early into that contest and Venric Mark, the starting tailback, was taken from the contest with a leg injury.
Colter was back in action the next week, in spot duties with backup Trevor Siemian, and will be 100 percent for Saturday. Northwestern, at long last, will get Venric Mark back on the field this Saturday against the Buckeyes.
In any other year, Mark would be a first-team all-Big Ten running back in 2012. However, Montee Ball, a Heisman candidate from the year prior, eventually tallied 1,830 rushing yards in his senior season and Le'Veon Bell, the other first-team running back selection, had 1,793 yards on 382 carries. That was the most rushing attempts in the nation. That kind of work load in Michigan State's offense last year should merit Bell first-team consideration, as well as a stiff drink.
Lost in Ball and Bell's seasons was Mark's breakout 2012 campaign. Mark had 1,366 rushing yards last season, averaging 105 yards a game. He tied with Kain Colter for a team-high 12 rushing touchdowns.
He did most of his damage in the second half of the last season. These games included a 182 yard outburst at Minnesota, and 162 yards at home against Iowa. Only Michigan State's vicious defense seemed capable of removing Mark from the game. He had just seven yards rushing in that contest, a 23-20 win for the Wildcats.
He also served as punt returner and kickoff returner for the Wildcats. He made his presence most felt on punt returns, averaging 21.5 yards a return with two touchdowns. He was easily tops in the Big Ten last year in that category.
Mark's senior season was curtailed in the season-opener against California, in which he suffered a leg injury. He will be very useful for the Wildcats in the game against Ohio State. Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald likened his return from injury to "a heck of a free-agent pickup."
In his only game this season, Mark had 11 carries for 29 yards against Cal's defense. 23 of those 29 yards came on one play.
MISCELLANY. ESPN's "The Bottom 10" is out for Week 4. Southern Miss might go wire to wire... Sorry, officer, I can't take that field sobriety test because my offensive line sucked in the 1980s... I would think most sports agents would've instead responded with "because I have an MBA", or "because I went to law school", or something, but not Jay Z... How Roger Goodell and the ESPN use each other... Mario Balotelli is the worst of all worsts... Brian Scalabrine sports the mother of all shiners to Golden State Warriors media day... Tennessee football is not pretty... I'm not sure if I should admonish Philly for feeding the troll, or for finding his approach in dealing with Mark May's moving of the goalposts to be amusing... Gary Barnett seems to regret leaving Northwestern for Colorado... Baylor will wear these helmets against WVU... De'Anthony Thomas is unlikely to play against Colorado, and likely will not be needed... As an Ohio State fan, I feel for Louisville this year. Nothing they do to build on last year's Sugar Bowl win will matter because of how comically bad its conference is, and Charlie Strong knows it... Two Purdue wide receivers arrested for shoplifting at Kohl's (#B1G)... A ridiculous chart of beer.
