Two underrated TV shows: Black Sails and Billions.
ICYMI: Scoonie Penn stopped by the Dubcast and dropped some #fire #takes on the state of the men's hoops program.
Word of the day: Ameliorate.
THE NEXT PROTÉGÉ? Mike Weber endured fumbling issues last season, yet still met expectations placed upon him as Ezekiel Elliott's heir. Though he could be a workhorse back, there's no reason to overly bludgeon his body against the likes of Army, Rutgers, Illinois, etc.
With Demario McCall expected to move to the H-Back position to help fill the void left by Curtis Samuel (more on him in a bit), could it leave room for sophomore Antonio Williams or true freshman J.K. Dobbins to make a move?
From cleveland.com:
Don't take this as a shot at Weber. The 5-foot-10, 212-pound running back had a very impressive freshman season in which he rushed for 1,096 yards and nine touchdowns. He's good. He's going to be a part of Urban Meyer's plan.
But because Ohio State doesn't have a ton of depth at running back, this spring could be the perfect time for players like Williams or Dobbins to take some meaningful reps and insert themselves into the game plan.
As football evolves, every-down backs are becoming a thing of the past. Ohio State's a rush-first spread, and a lot of times J.T. Barrett is the Buckeyes' first option. When it comes to running back, though, it was Weber and everyone else in 2016.
Weber could also improve his hands, which may make pass-catching a deciding factor in the battle for backup minutes. I have no horse in this race. My spicy #take is both Williams and Dobbins will be good.
YOU DON'T SAY? The American theory on drafts is they aid parity, yet somehow a majority of bad teams never get better. This happens because bad teams pass on guys like Curtis Samuel, who fall into the laps of smart teams for a discounted price.
If Samuel tests well at next week's combine, my sources indicate it would move him up the draft boards. Other sources say New England fancies him, as do the San Diego Chargers.
From 247sports.com:
"I know for a fact New England is one team that has their eye on [Samuel]," the source said. "The Chargers I think would love to have him replace (Danny) Woodhead and be a dynamic playmaker for them early in the second. If he has a good showing next week, teams may want to jump in front of both of those guys and get a playmaker later in the first. He's got a lot to prove, maybe more than any other Buckeye. He has to show he can do it all at this level."
The Danny Woodhead comparison is a banger. Ask any computer football player about the Gritmaster. They either have a tale about getting gored or riding him to glory.
Samuel could absolutely do those things for another team and average 25 computer points a game. Anybody in my computer football league, please disregard what you just read.
HIT 'EM WITH THE DEATH PENALTY, SOCRATES. Folks, it's been 12 hours and I'm still incredulous about this story out of Oxford, Mississippi. Apparently, the Rebels' 2013 recruiting class, which registered five five-star commits and finished No. 4 in the country, wasn't on the up and up?
From foxsports.com:
Of the eight new violations, six of them are considered Level I, which the NCAA deems most serious. The program is now facing a total of 15 Level I violations.
The new charges include cash payments from boosters and involve previous and current staff members. A full list of the new allegations can be found here.
In addition to the 2017 postseason ban, the Rebels will also forfeit its annual SEC postseason money, which is approximately $7.8 million, as per league rules.
Two things about that will forever be funny to me:
AND:
The tiebreaker is Mississippi's admission to getting swindled out of $13-15K by a #teen. May all our large sons be healthy and talented enough to hit a lick on a booster from the Wisconsin of the South.
Clearly, the NCAA must death penalty the Rebels for this insurrection. I'm joking; unless it actually happens, in which case I'm here for watching SWAT pepper spray rowdy mobs of surly dudes wearing pastel shorts and boat shoes.
Jokes aside, how Ohio State and Ole Miss built their 2013 classes and the trophies they reaped makes you think.
ZAXBY'S IS JUST FAKE CANE'S. Remember Jadar Johnson, the Clemson safety who said the Tigers faced better quarterbacks than J.T. Barrett?
Apparently, he helped pitch a shutout while subsisting on fried chicken. Now that he's training for the draft, he's awakened to the ancient arts of fruits and vegetables.
From independentmail.com:
"This is actually the best I’ve ever eaten," Johnson said. "I used to eat Zaxby’s and Bojangles every day. I didn’t eat no fruit. … Only time I ate vegetables was if I went back home to my grandma’s house, so I really feel like the diet that he has me on, it really helped me recover a lot."
Zaxby's makes me laugh. They opened a hustle spot near campus when I was "in school," and Cane's dumped them in under six months.
NOT YOUR PASTRAMI. Tom Herman founding MENSA, the organization for geniuses, is the fact we all love to know.
The Texas coach added to his origin story earlier this week, recalling a time a Subway owner dismissed him for pinching pastrami.
From the Dallas Morning News:
“When people said, ‘Hey, what do you do?’ I would say, ‘I’m a subcontractor. Or submarine contractor,” [Herman said].
“I used to love the pastrami. They had those big walk-in refrigerators. I was standing in there one day, with the door shut, just throwing pastrami in my mouth.
“It was like something out of a movie. I’ve got this bin of meat, throwing meat in my mouth, the door swings open and it’s the owner.
“He goes, ‘Get out. Don’t come back.’“
It's tough working around cold cuts. I ate my salary in pepperoni while working at Payne's Pizza and Tommy's Pizza as a youth. The cold cuts... they're so good... and they're infinite.
Still, perhaps this explains Subway's #brand descent from "healthy fast food" to "raccoon food" over the years.
CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST. Remember Chat Sports, the content-stealing hacks that ran "exposés" on recruits saying crude things on Twitter, back in 2012? Turns out it was worse than imagined.
From yahoo.com's report on the breakup between Sports Illustrated, The Cauldron, and Chat Sports (emphasis mine):
In its early days, Chat Sports posted original content from many different writers—some of those bylines, like Rick Steele or Tipp Smith, have Twitter accounts that have tweeted only one time. Were they fake? [Chatsports CEO James] Yoder says yes. “Absolutely we had fake writers,” he says. “That’s because we’re a scrappy company. What do you have when you start a company? You have zero traffic, you have zero name brand… So we had a writer program for college-aged kids… and sometimes they had information about things that they didn’t really feel comfortable writing in their own names. Some people think that’s such a terrible thing—‘journalistic integrity!’—that’s called growth hacking.”
Yoder says Chat Sports no longer runs fake bylines because it no longer needs to. “I wouldn’t do it at an established company,” he says, “but if I started another company… sure, absolutely, if we thought that it was beneficial. I think the founders of Airbnb, the founders of YouTube would say the same thing.”
Please don't hang me by my words when my byline is revealed to be a cooperative sublet betwixt a Purdue fan, a Macedonian teenager, a Waffle House cook in Atlanta and a Pakistani shipyard scrapper.
THOSE WMDs. You should never wait in line for a bar... Sick, dying, and raped in America's nursing homes... Lawmakers: Don't stop people for driving without a front license plate... Tracking yourself with $170 smartphone spyware anyone can buy... Mapping unchartered territories.