Wednesday Skull Session

By D.J. Byrnes on October 21, 2015 at 4:59 am
Johnnie Dixon is looking good.
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Cardale Jones got benched without ever losing a game. (The writing was on the wall, but WR Johnnie Dixon captured my reaction in the above photo.)

It's not all Cardale's fault. Ohio State's receivers not named "Mike Thomas" and "Braxton Miller" are struggling for consistency. It's Week 8 and there's no consistent deep threat like Devin Smith. The offensive line is a lot more comfortable running the ball than pass protecting. 

Dolo never played as bad as his detractors — the shrillest of whom alternated between general asshattery and outright assholery in their knuckles-on-the-floor critiques — would have you believe. Such is the nature of sports and detractors.

So what went wrong?

The biggest thing missing from Dolo's game last year is swagger. In the postseason, he played with the invincibility of a man with nothing to lose. This year, he played like a guy scared of losing everything for which he worked. It finally caught up with him.

It's not an unfair benching, and I'm not going to sit here and gnash my teeth over it. I hope J.T. Barrett goes out and makes 15 touchdowns on Rutgers.

But I also hope the Iron King draws on his lessons from last year and stays in the game. He's only one play from being back in the cockpit.

WHAT HAPPENS IF OSU BEATS MSU THEN LOSES TO UM? Here's a hellacious scenario to jumpstart your Wednesday: Ohio State dumps Michigan State then loses to Jim Harbaugh's Cracker Barrel disciples.

The CFP committee would literally pick the Big Ten East champion.

From BTN.com:

The highest ranked team in the first College Football Playoff poll following the completion of Big Ten regular season conference play shall be the representative in the Big Ten Championship Game, unless the two highest ranked tied teams are ranked within one spot of each other in the College Football Playoff poll. In this case, the head-to-head results of the top two ranked tied teams shall determine the representative in the Big Ten Championship Game.

And you know what? Unless Michigan mops the floor with Ohio State (lol), then it should still be Ohio State. Michigan would have two losses (at least). Michigan State will have lost to OSU and beaten Michigan on a (hilarious/glorious) fluke. Would the CFP vault Michigan all the way up past a one-loss former No. 1 seed? I'm not so sure.

Plus, a No. 4 Ohio State helped ESPN rake millions of ad revenue. Sure, Michigan and its creepy uncle Jim Harbaugh might pull ratings, but Ohio State is a proven commodity. That's why Michael Bay keeps making movies: His investors know it's money in the bank.

If the cookie did crumble that way, we could watch the tsunami of Michigan tears on social media. Talk about a #blessing; our ancestors didn't have that luxury in 1973.

MILLER DROVE SCHWARBER TO BASEBALL. Most former has-beens can remember running into an athlete during their career that made then believe in extraterrestrial life.

Chicago Cubs slugger Kyle Schwarber was a talented high school football with D-1 offers. Then he ran into Braxton Miller and decided a career change was in order.

From Chicago.SunTimes.com:

A linebacker at Middletown High School in Ohio, Schwarber was an all-state selection and had offers from numerous Division I schools.

He played his final football game Nov. 6, 2010 – a 21-0 postseason loss to Huber Heights Wayne and its star quarterback, Braxton Miller.

Miller, of course, went on to a decorated career at Ohio State. The senior quarterback-turned-receiver has already won more Big Ten awards – seven – than any player in Big Ten history.

That picture just delights me.

The only interest I keep in baseball (other than my Dodgers World Series Deciding Game Bandwagon card) is Cubs misery. If I ever win the Mega Millions, I'm building a six-times life size platinum statue of Steve Bartman as close to Wrigley as I can. 

SURPRISE: NOAH SPENCE DESTROYING FCS. Noah Spence is still chiseling away at his road to the NFL. To nobody's surprise he's thrashing offensive lines, but he's still working off the field too.

From Bruce Feldman of FoxSports.com's deep dive into Spence's ongoing recovery:

Noah Spence is no Ohio State hater, though. He was thrilled for the Buckeyes, but watching the game that night tore him up inside. 

“I had tears in my eyes,” Spence told FOX Sports. "I forced myself to watch it. The whole thing. It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance and I messed it all up.”  

[...]

"I was devastated,” said Buckeyes defensive lineman Adolphus Washington, Spence’s former housemate. "I never had a friend that had that type of problem. I felt like it was my fault because I didn’t do nothing sooner."

[...]

On the field, Spence has been as advertised. Not only does he lead the nation in TFLs, his presence also is drawing double-teams and forcing opponents to re-jigger their blocking schemes, which is enabling his EKU teammates to make more plays. The Colonels already have 19 sacks in six games. That’s as many as they had in 13 games last year.

It sucks that draconian conference laws — ecstasy ain't enhancing anything related to football, bro — cost Spence a national title and (potentially) millions of dollars in NFL guaranteed money.

I'm just glad it didn't cost him everything. If he stays on his current road, he'll be positioned for an NFL career much more than he would've been.

THE NEXT DARRON LEE? It seems like just yesterday Darron Lee was a cocky redshirt freshman telling an incredulous Joey Bosa that he was the true heir to Ryan Shazier's vacated, 300-tackle throne.

Lee will probably be earning paychecks next fall, but there could be a potential replacement en route to Columbus in 2017. Like Lee, it won't be a long commute either.

From Cleveland.com:

New Albany is where Ohio State linebacker Darron Lee played his high school football. And like Powell, New Albany is a relatively new community on the outskirts of Columbus. It's the suburbs, but it's still a Buckeyes school.

Olentangy Liberty, where junior athlete Brendon White plays, is no different.

White, the son of former Buckeyes defensive back William White, has starred at the Powell high school for the past three years before recently earning -- and accepting -- an Ohio State offer. 

[...]

"I've heard about the (comparisons to Darron Lee), and Luke Fickell actually told me about that," White told Northeast Ohio Media Group. "Then when I talked to Urban Meyer, he said I could be kind of like a Michael Thomas. I like wide receiver." 

It's a shame this kid can't enroll in Mickey Marotti's dojo until January 2017 at the earliest. Still, he looks the part: 

MAYBE WE'LL GET TO RUTGERS ON THURSDAY. Until then, here's a fact about a New Jerseyan we all love to know:

Even with his smokin'-pistol-on-the-hip offensive nature, it's probably a bad sign for Chip Kelly's future in Philadelphia if his defense features the snaps leader.

THOSE WMDs. Genetic study writes a new origin story for dogs... The Central Park Dinosaur Park that never was... Llama Nation... Americans love to bite... Starcraft: Serious business.

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