Skull Session: Buckeye Rookies Thrive, Penn State is Not Ohio State's Rival, and Buckeyes Bring TV Ratings

By Kevin Harrish on October 28, 2020 at 4:59 am
Welcome future Buckeyes to today's skull session.
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Your team may not have won the World Series last night, but we're all winners after Fox gifted us this glorious throwback picture of Urban Meyer.

Word of the Day: Ancilla.

 NFL ASSEMBLY LINE. You're not going to believe this, but the Buckeyes have once again sent a crop of players to the next level who are immediately successful.

If you would have told me six months ago that two Buckeyes would be among the league's top-three defensive rookies, I would have believed you with no questions asked. But I can't say I ever would have pegged Jordan Fuller as one of them.

 NOT A RIVALRY. It's no secret that Penn State's been the only Big Ten team to keep things even moderately competitive with the Buckeyes with any sort of consistency in the past decade. Meanwhile, Ohio State's been stuffing Michigan in a woodchipper every season for almost two decades.

Honestly, it makes sense for an outsider to wonder who Ohio State's true rival really is, and it makes even more sense for Penn State to earnestly believe that it's them. But that doesn't make it true.

Columbusite Antonio Shelton knows what's up.

You're damn right you're not Michigan, Antonio. And the easiest way to know that is the fact that your four games against Ohio State have actually been competitive.

 BUCKS BRING THE RATINGS. It's tough to quantify how desperate the world was for Buckeye football, but I'd say record-breaking ratings in a blowout season-opener at noon do a pretty solid job at tell that story.

 I think it's safe to say college football missed the Buckeyes. And believe me, those feelings are reciprocated.

 GOODBYE, GOOD DAKICH. After three years with the Buckeyes, one of our favorite turncoats is moving on.

After two seasons as a member of the Ohio State coaching staff under Chris Holtmann, Dakich is taking a job as the director of basketball operations at Elon University, The Dispatch has learned. An official announcement is expected as soon as Tuesday, pending final approval from human resources at Elon.

The move will reunite Dakich with one of his former coaches. He will work at Elon for Mike Schrage, a longtime member of Holtmann’s coaching staff who was an assistant at Ohio State for two seasons before taking the head coaching position for the Phoenix for the 2019-20 season. Prior to taking the Elon job, Schrage was an assistant for Holtmann at Butler from 2016-17 and then with the Buckeyes from 2017-19.

"We are really happy for Dak," Holtmann told The Dispatch in a statement. "This is the next step in Andrew's coaching career. He has a very bright future in our business. Andrew has a really good feel for the game and how teams work, as we all saw during his playing season as a Buckeye.

"He's working for an excellent coach and person in Mike Schrage. Looking forward to following their success at Elon."

It's still unbelievable to me that he played meaningful minutes for an Ohio State team that finished third in the Big Ten, but I'm eternally grateful because if he didn't, Chris Holtmann's actual plan was to sign some kids from a local summer rec league.

Godspeed, Dakich. 

 SONG OF THE DAY. "Duel of the Fates" by John Williams.

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