Skull Session: Ohio State Looking to Avoid Another Road Upset, Five-Stars Defenders Coming Alive, and Mike Hart Discusses How to Beat Ohio State For Some Reason

By Kevin Harrish on September 12, 2019 at 4:59 am
Just a couple of mensches in today's skull session.
Ohio State Athletics
92 Comments

In case y'all missed the early frontrunner for Tweet of the Week:

Realistically, would last year's defensive showing have been that much worse if Michigan replaced Don Brown with an intern from the United States Patent and Trademark Office?

ICYMI

Word of the Day: Logy.

 THIRD TIME'S A CHARM? My paranoid ass is so rattled by what happened at Iowa and Purdue the past two years that I'm heading into every road game against an inferior opponent like a terrified child peeking around the corner at a haunted house.

"If I *expect* the murder clown, maybe it won't be so effective at terrifying me?"

The good news is, after two years of getting absolutely railed by inferior opponents on the road, the players won't be taking those games lightly either.

From Rob Oller of the Columbus Dispatch:

Senior receiver K.J. Hill described both losses as “unexplainable.”

“Things didn’t go right in those games,” Hill said Tuesday, suggesting that lack of red zone offense contributed to the stunner. But otherwise? Emoji shrug.

“We went in feeling good about the game. It just didn’t work out,” Hill said. “We prepare the same each week. We have to execute our plays, and if we don’t, we’ll end up with an ‘L.’”

...

“The mentality we have is if you’re the champ, if you’re the boxer, they’re going to try to knock you out every time you go in the ring,” he said. “We’re going to get everybody’s best shot, we know that. Don’t be surprised.

I can feel it. This is it. This is our year. This is the year that Ohio State doesn't get slugged by a fringe bowl team.

 FIVE-STARS PLAYING LIKE FIVE-STARS. My favorite thing about having a defense full of five-star defenders would probably be not watching mediocre scat backs run down the sideline for 70 yards.

Unfortunately, that was not a luxury I was afforded last year as the defensive scheme presumably called for those five-star defenders to be either a) on the bench or b) chasing the mediocre scat backs down the sideline.

Needless to say, I'm pleased that they now look like the most talented players in the country, because they are.

From Doug Lesmerises Cleveland.com:

In the Class of 2017, No. 7 Chase Young, No. 8 Jeff Okudah, No. 11 Baron Browning and No. 17 Shaun Wade were ranked among the top 20 recruits in the nation, all of them 5-stars. They were also the third-, fourth-, sixth- and eighth-best defensive players in that class. Of the other four top defensive players in 2017, one (Alabama LB Dylan Moses) is out with a knee injury, one is sitting out this season after a transfer, and one is a backup.

The four 5-star Buckeyes? They’re changing Ohio State’s defense.

“When you bring in two of the top-three corners, a top linebacker and a top defensive end, you expect to have a real strong defense eventually,” Okudah said.

“I just knew I was coming in with some dawgs,” Young said, “and they’re displaying that every week.”

Yeah, there was no reason for that defense to be bad last year, but I'm working on getting past that and just appreciating that Jeff Hafley and Greg Mattison bravely took on the tast of fixing the most talented defense in the country.

 MIKE HART ON BEATING OHIO STATE. If y'all were running short on confidence heading into this week's matchup with the Hoosiers, remember that Mike Hart is coaching on the other sideline.

Ah yes, Mike Hart, the nation's authority on beating Ohio State. Indiana should hire Chad Henne as their quarterbacks coach. That'll really have the Buckeyes rattled.

I don't really know what Hart is supposed to say here, but if "we just need to control the front" is anything close to Indiana's actual complete offensive gameplan... Uh, good luck!

 MOTHER PREDATOR. I won't truly know what it's like to parent an All-American until the NCAA has a place for my four-lagged purring fuzz creature of a son, but Chase Young's mother is giving us a peek at a day in the life.

"We need 20 sacks this year. I know they're going to triple team you but come on, boo, you can do it."

Carla speaks for us all.

 3.5 YARDS AND AN UNDEFEATED SEASON. Forget all that Urban Meyer to USC speculation. Meyer's going to be coaching Navy to a national title in 2022.

If he gave this speech to Army before last weekend's game, that would make a ton of sense. If he didn't, why the hell not?

 NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. What happens when you fall asleep in your self-driving car... The real story behind the Instagram account where kids pay $1,000 for a shoutout... Water found on a potentially life-friendly alien planet... The oral history of Crying Jordan – the meme that would not die... eBay investigates how its email icon was swapped for a photo of a topless-woman... The restaurant that died on 9/11...

92 Comments
View 92 Comments