Skull Session: Chase Young Predicts Justin Fields to Win the Heisman, NFL Draft Ain't Moving For College Football, and Michigan Tries to “Install” Hate for Ohio State

By Kevin Harrish on July 3, 2020 at 4:59 am
We're at the top of the tunnel in today's skull session.
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Ben Hartsock's out here enjoying the most American Fourth of July imaginable.

As you celebrate this weekend, please heed my sage advice this weekend: drink multiple alcohols and blow stuff up. Also, stay safe.

Word of the Day: Agog.

 CALLING HIS SHOT. Ohio State had half the Heisman Trophy finalists this year, and from one Heisman finalist to another, Chase Young thinks the trophy is coming back to Columbus this year.

I have to admit, I'm personally invested in a Drue Chrisman Heisman campaign, but I guess I'd settle for Justin Fields in a pinch. As long as it comes with a natty.

 READY OR NOT. For the past few months, we've heard whispers and conjecture about a spring college football season if the very bad virus does not allow football to be played in the fall.

The one problem is, with the NFL Draft in April, you might have more than a few of college football's stariest stars – like Justin Fields or Shaun Wade – decide to skip the season and go directly to the draft.

And the NFL doesn't sound too into fixing the problem.

Here's the thing, this isn't actually a problem until it is, so until then, I'm just going to keep on going about my life as if football season is happening as planned. I'll reserve my stress for when I officially need it.

 “INSTALLING” HATE. Ohio State's made an entire brand out of hating Michigan, and it seems they've finally learned they've got some catching up to do.

“That’s something that we’ve talked about,” Paye said. “Some of the team leaders on the defense – just enforcing that hate a lot more. Every time I turn on that game, I feel like at times – we hate them, but I feel like we have to enforce – we have to install it like freshmen coming in, we have to install it. ‘We hate those guys.’ There can’t (be) no, ‘Oh, my boy goes to that school so I’m –’ No – hate off of that. So just enforcing that to go into their brain. Watching game tape every single day on them. Making sure that we know all of their plays. Making sure we watch past games. Just making sure we’re (prepared).

“After every Saturday when we’re done with our game, I’m turning on a TV to watch Ohio State to make sure to see what they’re doing every single Saturday.”

That's fine and good, but here's the problem – like the scoreboard every November, you're already behind. Ohio State's young players don't need that hate "installed" as freshmen, they've been dunking on your ass since before they got to campus.

But hey, if the goal is to just make the game a little more competitive than the past two years, I'm all for it. Just don't set those hopes too high.

 TOUGH LUCK GETS TOUGHER. This was already the worst season imaginable to try to make a team as an undrafted free agent with pro days and workouts canceled, rookie minicamps nonexistent and the preseason likely getting cut in half.

But it looks like it's going to get even worse.

In an effort to combat the spread of coronavirus, NFL teams are likely to bring fewer than the regular 90 players they ordinarily bring to training camp whenever it begins, per league sources.

One source said he believed it's likely that teams will go to camp with 80-man rosters, and another source said it's "definitely not 90." A third league source said he has "heard lots of discussion about 75 players potentially instead of 90", especially with the reduction in preseason games and teams not needing as many players for camp as normal

It seems like every year there's an undrafted or under-the-radar Buckeye that stuns everyone and makes a 53-man roster, but it's looking like those opportunities aren't going to exist this season, and that sucks.

Prayers up for the guys like Robert Landers and Branden Bowen, cause lord knows they'd be making some noise if they had the shot.

 NEVER FORGET. Dwayne Haskins' time at Ohio State was just two years ago but he was so unfathomably good it's already starting to feel like some damn mythology.

I mean, what is my brain even supposed to do with this?

I'm going to have to explain that season to my kids one day, and – in the best way possible – I'm not sure I'm ever going to be able to do it thoroughly.

 NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. Italy seizes a record-breaking $1 billion worth of drugs they say were ‘ISIS-made’... How police secretly took over a global phone network for organized crime... Amsterdam's red light district reopens after the coronavirus shutdown, but with no kissing... The tragic legacy behind the famous ‘Into the Wild’ bus... Sparrows are singing a new song, in a rapid and unprecedented shift... 

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