Skull Session: Ohio State's Passing is More Conservative, Michael Thomas' Catch Rate, Paris Johnson Jr. Baking

By Kevin Harrish on September 26, 2018 at 4:59 am
The squad enters today's Skull Session.
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I'm going to be honest, with Ryan Day's rise to power, it honestly slips my mind that there's another offensive mastermind helping steer the offense. And that's absolutely my loss, because Kevin Wilson is an absolutely fascinating human.

That's one hell of a quote, and I am all-in on measuring quarterback accuracy based on how many ducks they can hit with a football at a fair. That should just determine the Heisman winner, in my opinion.

ICYMI

Word of the Day: Flummoxed.

 MORE CONSERVATIVE THAN EVER? The Buckeye passing game has looked more lethal and prolific than it has since the 2014 national championship season – there's almost no arguing that.

But what if I told you, this is also the most conservative the passing game has been in five years?

Yes, it might not feel that way, but Ohio State took far more downfield shots with J.T. Barrett at the helm than it currently does with Dwayne Haskins, though I think you'd find a drastic difference in the percentage of times those passes were actually completed.

My hunch is this offense might take fewer downfield shots, but it's drastically more efficient on those downfield shots.

Also, I'm dying at the fact that every fourth pass Cardale Jones threw was 20+ yards downfield. What a ride that was.

 STRENGTH OF SCHEDULES, FUTURE AND PAST. Strength of schedule is one of my favorite things to obsess over that really doesn't mean much, and I ran across a fun little graphic showing what teams have done so far this season, and how far they have left to go.

The first number is ranking the strength of the schedule the team's already played while the second number is ranking the strength of the schedule the team has yet to play.

Ohio State's is pretty standard and on par with Georgia and Alabama, but there are definitely some things that jump out with the other programs

On the "Ain't Played Nobody" side of things, holy hell, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Clemson could straight up cake walk their way to an undefeated record. If any of those teams get in the playoff as a one-loss team – or even get serious consideration – I'm cancelling the committee.

On the flip side, pour one out LSU and Auburn. Finishing with any fewer than two losses given those schedules is damn near impossible, especially with an SEC Championship Game thrown in there.

 THIS IS GETTING RIDICULOUS. Michael Thomas has been so good this season it's seriously starting to look unrealistic. He's basically breaks an NFL receiving record every week, and is currently on pace to comfortably break a couple of season records.

Then every now and then, I see a stat like this:

I'm sorry, 21 percentage points better than the next best guy over the past 26 years? That's like, brain melting. That's almost incomprehensible.

I said a few months ago that there was almost certainly going to be some kind of regression, and I still think that's true simply because I don't think it's humanly possible to keep up this pace. But at this point even a steep drop off in production would still give him damn good numbers.

I think it's time to consider the fact that Thomas might be the best receiver in the NFL, and that Ohio State's broke-ass 2015 offense might have done even more of a disservice to him than Ezekiel Elliott.

Third-team All-Big Ten wide receiver who immediately lights the world on fire at the next level, putting up Randy Moss numbers. Something doesn't add up there, and it makes what happened in 2015 all the more infuriating.

 BEST PIE I'VE EVER BEEN AROUND. Six-year-old Leiana “Amazing Amy” Jones from Springdale has made waves on social media with her adorable baking demonstration videos, and now she's created enough waves to get this Buckeye Blogger to blog about her pies.

Amy was diagnosed with a serious speech impediment at an early age and her mother decided to use baking demonstrations as a way to improve her speech skills and confidence, according to Local12.com.

Now, she's out here pulling one-on-one interviews with the top-rated Buckeye commit in the 2018 class.

Paris Johnson Jr., the nation's No. 2 offensive tackle and No. 10 overall player in the country, was kind enough to do a baking demonstration with Amy. Except he definitely did very little of the demonstrating.

Johnson baked with Amy last week before heading up to Columbus for a weekend visit, and he brought one of Amy's pies with him for a certain head coach to try.

The verdict? I think Urban Meyer's face speaks for itself.

 CLEARLY FAKE SCHOOL TURNS OUT TO BE FAKE. A little over a month ago, I introduced you all to a sketchy new "school" called Christians of Faith Academy.

This alleged school had no building, no working website, no identifiable academic structure, and vague funding and leadership, yet was putting together a football team and had already scheduled some of the top high schools in the state and nation.

In an absolutely shocking turn of events, this "school" is no longer considered an academic institution by the Ohio High School Athletic Association, and was likely never a school at all.

Apparently, there's no proof that COF has ever had classes, the church group the school claimed to be affiliated with and funded by has denied any involvement, and St. Edward  abruptly cancelled its game with the alleged school.

From ThisWeekNews.com:

And now, according to spokesman Tim Stried, the OHSAA does not consider COF Academy an academic institution.

Stried said last week the organization began hearing reports that no classes had been held for COF Academy students. After trying and failing to verify that classes were taking place, OHSAA officials made the decision Sept. 21.

“We don’t believe they are a school at this point, so they’re not going to be included in this week’s computer ratings,” Stried said.

Last week, the organization that supposedly funded COF Academy, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, said it never has had any affiliation with the school or its football program.

As hilarious and insane as this is, it is sad that there's an entire football roster of kids – though we don't know who, because they've also never released a football roster – who seem to have been scammed.

But the OHSAA is working towards making things right, and is letting any COF player return to their original schools midseason without losing eligibility. This sounds like a major exception, but if COF isn't a school, OHSAA transfer rules don't really apply.

What a wild, wild story.

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