Skull Session: Justin Fields is Unreal, Demario McCall Could Provide a Boost, and Justin Hilliard Had Himself a Game

By Kevin Harrish on November 9, 2020 at 5:36 am
Justin Fields is leading the Buckeyes onto the 'Shoe in today's skull session.
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We lost an absolute legend this weekend. Television will never be the same.

Word of the Day: Succor.

 BETTER THAN FICTION. Justin Fields damn near perfect in the season opener, and it's looking like that's not even going to be remotely close to an outlier.

Whenever someone posts like that earlier in the season, I always assume we'll see them struggle a bit in the coming weeks as water finds its level, but it's looking more and more like Justin Fields' average game is going to look like a damn video game.

Let's put it this way – in his worst passing performance of the season, Fields went 28 for 34 passing for 318 yards four touchdowns. That's one hell of an off day.

 DEMARIO TIME? It's now been three full games against teams that have a combined 1-7 record and Ohio State still cannot run the ball with consistency. I'm starting to become just a bit concerned, and with the way Ohio State's been managing that position, it seems they're still trying to figure things out, as Austin Ward of Lettermen Row points out.

But he does not expect those future plans to include Demario McCall.

No sweeping judgments about Ohio State are likely to be made against a hapless opponent like Rutgers, so there’s only so much stock that will go into the evaluation no matter how a player performed. But with all eyes still focused on the running backs as a unit of some measure of uncertainty, it was telling that Demario McCall was inserted for a jolt late in the second quarter and that Steele Chambers again looked like a viable weapon when he was darting down the field on his fake-punt rush.

McCall is still unlikely to be counted on as anything more than a specialized, gadget-play contributor thanks to his ball-security issues and the inconsistency that has plagued his career. But Chambers might be worth a closer look for the Buckeyes given the intensity he carries the football with and his apparent desire to seek out contact at the end of a run. Chambers also flashed that upside against Nebraska in the opener, and he could be in line for an extended audition.

I'm well aware that there's definitely some "I talk to coaches off the record about players and you don't" at play here, and that's totally true and valid – you'll be shocked to hear that I've never in my life texted Tony Alford about how Demario McCall looks in practice. Sorry if that ruins my noted reputation as the foremost Ohio State insider.

But, "ball-security issues" and "inconsistency" are hilarious descriptors for a guy who has never lost a fumble on a play from scrimmage and averages 6.3 yards per carry on 90 career rushing attempts. It's just plain incorrect.

Now, it's more likely that Ward is actually just talking about how he's been told McCall performs in practice (If that's the case, I wish he'd just say that – but I digress). That's fair, and I'd believe it, but let's not act like he'd be the first player to perform significantly better in games than he does in practice. I mean, we're less than two years removed from Rose Bowl Defensive MVP Brendon White doing exactly that.

I get that McCall is probably nowhere near as good as we think, or he would already be playing. I also completely understand the coach's reluctance to roll with a guy who does not perform well in practice, if that's the issue. But at the same time, the running backs have been one step short of ass through three full games this season. It would just be reckless to not give him a real chance, at this point.

 OKAY, JUSTIN HILLIARD. Turns out, Ohio State might have missed Justin Hilliard a little more than I expected against Penn State because according to PFF, he was the highest-graded linebacker on any Power Five team this week.

Full disclosure, I still have absolutely no idea how their grading works, and if he was truly that dominant, I would have expected him to be Ohio State's defensive player of the week instead of another fellow in his same position group.

But still, shoutout

 IT'S BETTER THIS WAY. I made a joke that Rutgers' late-game peskiness was the worst damage Greg Schiano's caused an Ohio State defense outside of Iowa City and West Lafayette, but maybe it really wasn't all that much of a joke?

What the Wolverines and Nittany Lions suffered through Saturday, the Buckeyes have lived through before. They lived it when Greg Schiano, now the Rutgers head coach, was the Ohio State defensive coordinator in 2018. Michigan and Penn State are reeling in other ways, so their 17- and 16-point losses to the Hoosiers and Terrapins weren’t as out of the blue as Ohio State’s 29-point loss to Purdue in 2018.

But that old loss was the real story of Saturday night’s Schiano reunion, won by Ohio State 49-27. To attach a welcome home, all-is-well vibe to Schiano’s first game back in Ohio Stadium in two seasons was a disservice to what happened last time he was here, when as a million-dollar defensive coordinator, he blew it.

...

I think it went wrong, in the end, because Schiano is more of a head coach than a coordinator. He’s born to be in charge. When he arrived at Ohio State, it felt like a bonus for the Buckeyes to get as an assistant a guy who had been a head coach for his previous 13 coaching seasons. But it didn’t work, at least not by Year 3. Schiano got bored running half the show, and the result was him creating an overly complex defense that drove everybody crazy.

Saturday night, Rutgers ran a score of trick plays and nearly recovered an onside kick. Back at Rutgers, Schiano is the perfect coach for that program, and the Scarlet Knights never stopped fighting and never stopped trying and never stopped throwing passes to 340-pound linemen. Schiano pulled out all the stops, because he had to. Schiano managed every inch of that game, coached every second of that game, because if Rutgers is going to compete in the Big Ten, that’s how it has to be.

I have no qualms with Schiano and think he'll be as good at Rutgers as anyone at Rutgers can possibly be. I wish him well, I just do not want him anywhere near Ohio State's defense ever again.

 WASTING YOUR SHOT? No matter what Rutgers pulled out of its ass on Saturday, the Scarlet Knights were never going to beat Ohio State. So while those trick plays were fun as hell, Schiano probably could have saved them for another game, as my adopted uncle suggests.

This is exactly what went through my head throughout the game, as well, but then it hit me: Schiano isn't going to need trick plays against Michigan because Rutgers will be the better team.

And I'm not even sure I'm joking.

 SONG OF THE DAY. "Black and White" by Niall Horan.

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