Skull Session: Urban Meyer a Close-Game General, Projecting Jonathon Cooper, and Six Things Tom Herman Swiped

Well, it's been three days into camp and I went from "Ohio State loses four in '16" to "Nobody wants to play this hungry Buckeye team."

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 BREAKING: URBAN IS GOOD. Folks, you're never going to believe this... but the numbers were crunched and Ohio State's coach is one of the best in one-score games, amassing a 13-2 record in such contests since 2012. Not only does it speak to his dominance in close games, but it also means he's 37-2 in two-score games. 

From cbssports.com:

Best: Urban Meyer, Ohio State Buckeyes -- Of all the impressive stats associated with Meyer's career, how his teams fare in tight games often gets overlooked. Meyer is 34-13 in one-score games. Great talent certainly helps. Still, Meyer easily has the best record for any active Power Five coach with at least 25 career one-score games. The only coaches to beat Meyer in a one-score game since 2008 are Dantonio, Miles, Mullen, Dabo Swinney and Houston Nutt.

Dantonio, Miles, Mullen, Swinney, and a gas station manager, basically. Wild list indeed.

What I like most about those victories is Meyer's modus operandi is overwhelming his opponents with waves of superiorly trained athletes. He's not undefeated, but no coach is.

Hell, Notre Dame fans would burn down Brian Kelly's house tonight if it meant Urban Meyer would coach the Irish. Same with every other school on that list. 

 JONATHON COOPER'S PATH. Nick Bosa is the banner freshman defensive end, but people forget about Ohio State's other 2016 five-star defensive end, which is ironic since Jonathon Cooper played 12 miles from campus.

From landof10.com:

Cooper plays one of the deepest positions on the team, which means he’ll have to go against the likes of Tyquan Lewis, Sam Hubbard, Jalyn Holmes, Darius Slade and Nick Bosa in the fight for snaps. The good news for the true freshman is that the defensive line has had a pretty deep rotation over the last two years and even more reps might be up for grabs this year with mainstay Joey Bosa off to the NFL. 

Having considered those factors, Cooper’s talent seems like it’s too great to keep him off the field in his first year of college ball. On National Signing Day in 2016, defensive coordinator Luke Fickell seemed to believe Cooper was up to to the task.

“And then you’d say maybe a (player like)  Jonathan Cooper, it might be a little bit on the edge where you might not be as physically dominant on the inside,” Ohio State defensive coordinator Luke Fickell said in February. “But it is difficult. But, again, we recruit those guys with the idea that we think that they can come in and give us an opportunity to compete and vie for some playing time, especially if you’re playing nine or 10 guys up there.”

Cooper plays like a man who could lay 15 miles of train track a day. I could see him deployed in obvious passing situations this year. I'm wagering we could see Little Bear moved inside for those too. Good luck to any Big Ten linemen trying to block those two.

 HOW TOM HERMAN FOUNDED MENSA. We all know the tale by now. Impressed by his resume, Urban Meyer hired MENSA founder Tom Herman as his offensive coordinator in 2011. 

Herman helped guide J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones to the 2014 national title before taking over in Houston, where he already staked himself to a 13-1 record. Despite founding an organization for geniuses, Herman was still the apprentice in Columbus, so it's unsurprising he took six tenets with him.

One of those, from espn.com:

Alignment is a word rooted in Meyer's programs, and it doesn't always take hold in the first year. Not much changes in Year 2 to spark a championship run, but after a full year, there's an alignment within the program. It's an all-encompassing term stretching to every corner of the program.

"In Year 1, I don't care where you go. You're trying as best you can to get as much buy-in, but there's never 100 percent. There can't be. Guys have been involved in another program," said Steve Addazio, who is the coach for Boston College and former Meyer assistant. "In Year 2, everyone knows the offseason program, understands accountability, bought into the principles, the way we practice, run Fridays, train. Everyone is in alignment.

"That's really what it is. I know it intimately. There's nothing else that's different."

This is why, despite the Year 2 boost, I question Jim Harbaugh's ability to build a machine like Meyer. The man is amazing, but also could be an alien. I have no disdain for him until he beats Ohio State.

But does he strike you as a guy who can go tit-for-tat with Meyer, a much more methodical alien? I'm biased, sure, but Harbaugh's not built like that.

Check out that whole article, too. It's worth the read.

 EBNER WRECKING THE WORLD. Nate Ebner helped America to some Olympic history Tuesday night.

From nbcolympics.com:

The New England Patriots took a break from training camp to watch Nate Ebner play rugby for the U.S. in Rio. Ebner gave his NFL teammates something to cheer about, scoring a try to help the U.S. defeat Brazil 26-0.

It was the first-ever Olympic rugby sevens win for the U.S. men. Rugby sevens is making its Olympic debut in Rio. When the sport was last played at the Olympics in 1924, it was the 15-a-side version of the game, and the U.S. won the gold medal.

[...]

Ebner has the full support of his NFL team. Patriots coach Bill Belichick wore a USA Rugby shirt to training camp this morning with Ebner’s name on the back. He then gave his players a break to watch Ebner play against Brazil. 

The @Patriots @NateEbner played like an absolute savage tonight against #BRA All over the field!! pic.twitter.com/hfrfPQMrlx

— USA Sevens Rugby (@USASevensRugby) August 9, 2016

Video of Ebner's try—think of it like a touchdown—can be viewed over here.

More importantly, however, is that you don't want to mess with Ebner. Here he is cleaning house against Argentina (unfortunately a 17-14 loss) and Brazil:

Nate Ebner didn't like this dude from Argentina standing over his teammate, apparently. pic.twitter.com/qKS9qEtSkI

— Steve Hewitt (@steve_hewitt) August 9, 2016

Nate Ebner sinbinned for this massive blindside hit. Just like special teams. BB smiles somewhere pic.twitter.com/SSQrHuTHcb

— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) August 9, 2016

Easy to see why the guy is a valued special teams gunner. He smacks dudes.

 BACK DOWN THE TOTEM POLE. Darron Lee went from "Can he replace Ryan Shazier?" to game-changing linebacker in a year. It took him the same amount of time to get kicked back down the totem pole, too.

Rookie duties..#JetsCamp #Buckeyes pic.twitter.com/8mLiOpVh1E

— candice (@SideEyeSassShow) August 9, 2016

The lesson, as always, is life comes at you fast.

 KEVIN'S OLYMPIC RUNDOWN. In case you missed it, the Canadian women's soccer team and junior Buckeye striker Nichelle Prince dumped No. 2 world-ranked Germany, 2-1 to keep its perfect record alive and win Group F. Nate Ebner also did good things, and the United States got its first ever Olympic rugby win.

On today's docket, Ebner continues his Olympic run. The United States takes on Fiji in rugby sevens at noon-thirty, followed by a possible quarterfinal match in the evening.

The other Buckeyes in action today are women's fencers Eleanor Harvey of Canada and Mona Schiato of Lebanon, who will begin action early in the morning and in a perfect world will compete all the way to the medal round later in the evening.

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