Skull Session: Chip Kelly Discusses Ryan Day, Dwayne Haskins Feels Overlooked, and Breaking Down the Bowl Game Gifts

By Kevin Harrish on December 11, 2018 at 4:59 am
Brendon White destroys Michigan in today's Skull Session.
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I greet you today with delightful news that Michigan has been adequately owned online.

The best part: it was on the basketball reddit. Nowhere is safe.

ICYMI

Word of the Day: Orison.

 BIG GAME DAY? Everyone wants to make the Ryan Day to Lincoln Riley comparisons, and it makes sense – a great head coach rides off into the sunset, tossing the keys to one of the top programs in the country in the direction of a young offensive guru with no previous head coaching experience.

It fits.

But Day's mentor, Chip Kelly, isn't comparing him to the new Oklahoma head coach, but rather the now-retired one.

From Bruce Feldman of The Athletic ($):

“I think Ryan is special,” Kelly told The Athletic. “He reminds me personality-wise and in the way he does everything of Bob Stoops. They’ve got that intensity, and they’re also really big family guys. Sometimes you hear someone talk about how a coach is a big family guy and it might sound like they’re saying there’s something soft about them, but there’s nothing soft about Bob or Ryan. They both have this competitiveness, this intensity and this presence about them.

“Bob’s first head coaching job was one of the premier coaching jobs in the country, and he did a great job. Ryan’s first head coaching job is also one of the premier jobs, and I think he’ll do a great job, too.”

From the sound of it, Ryan Day doesn't really get an option – he's going to do a great job, because Gene Smith ain't lowering the expectations for him just because he's never done this before.

 MORE DISRESPECT. Dwayne Haskins' weekend was full of disrespect and now he's feeling a bit more after the AP All-American lists came out, giving him just third-team honors, putting him behind Kyler Murray and Tua Tagovailoa yet again.

I didn't really consider this until I saw the AP's All-American teams, but with Tua and Kyler Murray presumably getting the top-two spots on every All-American team, Haskins probably isn't even going to get a tree in Buckeye Grove after the best single-season performance in Ohio State and Big Ten history.

All I can say is, God help Washington and their All-World secondary.

 FOUR MORE YEARS! Rejoice, Jim Harbaugh ain't going anywhere! 

Our khaki'd prince vows to remain in Ann Arbor and will not pursue an NFL coaching job, citing "big plans" at Michigan.

From Adam Schefter – not to be confused with our own Dan Hope – of ESPN.com:

Jim Harbaugh said he will not leave Michigan to return to coaching in the NFL, emphasizing that he has "big plans" in Ann Arbor.

"This is a choreographed message that comes up at this time every year before signing day," Harbaugh told ESPN this weekend. "It's people spreading messages to further their own personal agenda.

"But I'm on record right here, right now: I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying at Michigan. We have big plans here, and there's a lot we want to accomplish."

Given that he's been literally the worst Michigan coach against Ohio State in the rivalry's 121-year history, I pray he stays forever.

But after he loses to a first-year head coach at home to a first-year starter at quarterback to move to 0-5 against his biggest rival without its legendary head coach, he might not have to ask to go back to the NFL.

 BOWL GIFTS SZN. Bowl Game Santa is about to bless each member of the 80(!) bowl teams this season with (no more than $550 worth of) gifts.

As they do every year, Sports Business Daily compiled a list of all the gifts given by each bowl, and as usual, it's pretty entertaining.

Highlights include:
  • Personalized bobble heads of each athlete (y'all thought they weren't paid), courtesy of the Orange Bowl
  • Extremely on-brand gifts from the Hawaii Bowl: Aloha t-shirt, swimsuit and beach towel
  • 10 bowls giving away footballs, because who knows where else these players would get one of those
  • Life-sized Fathead of each player's own likeness, courtesy of the Quick Lane Bowl
  • The Cotton Bowl refused to disclose its gifts, apparently protecting state secrets.

The Rose Bowl gifts are actually pretty lame in comparison to some of the others – a gift suite, a fossil watch, an Ogio backpack and a New Era 9Fifty adjustable hat. That's not bad necessarily, but when other teams are getting custom bobble heads, an adjustable hat ain't really cutting it.

I guess the trip to California in the winter is pretty solid in itself, though.

 GET YOUR COLORS RIGHT. With Ohio State's long history in the Rose Bowl, you'd think they'd be familiar with the school's color scheme.

Yet, here we are:

The account got promptly bombed with replies from angry Buckeyes, explaining that it's "scarlet" not "red," and they followed up shortly after.

To be fair, Twitter was barely around last time Ohio State played in the Rose Bowl.

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