Skull Session: Ohio State is the Heavy Big Ten Favorite, Steele Chambers is Pictured With the Running Backs, and Justin Fields Talks QB Battle

By Kevin Harrish on July 22, 2021 at 4:59 am
We've got a three-headed monster in today's skull session.
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Somehow, today will be the first time Kevin Warren addresses the media after making one of the most controversial decisions in the history of the conference over a year ago. It's both totally unbelievable and amazingly on-brand.

But hey, at least we get 15 bonus minutes to ask the questions he should have handled a year ago!

For full coverage of Big Ten Media Days, be sure you're following my good pals Dan Hope, Colin Hass-Hill and 11W newby Garrick Hodge.

You should under no circumstances follow me. In fact, I am providing a link to my account for the sole purpose of you unfollowing me.

Word of the Day: Munificent.

 SAME STUFF, DIFFERENT YEAR. There have only been two times in the past nine years that the media did not pick Ohio State to win the Big Ten, and Ohio State won the conference crown both of those years.

So, (almost) nobody's getting cute this year.

Ohio State was the near-unanimous preseason favorite in the 2021 cleveland.com Preseason Big Ten Poll. All but one of the 34 members of our voting panel picked the Buckeyes — the four-time defending champions — to win the Big Ten East and the championship game.

(NOTE: Due to a tabulation error, Ohio State was originally credited with being the unanimous choice to win the Big Ten championship game.)

The voters picked Wisconsin as the West favorite with 29 first-place votes. Second-place Iowa received the other five first-place votes. One voter picked Wisconsin to defeat the Buckeyes in the Big Ten championship game.

It is my sincerest hope that the "tabulation error" was that they simply just assumed everyone was going to pick Ohio State and didn't even bother checking the responses.

That's purely fan fiction, but I'm rolling with it.

 STEELE UNCERTAIN. Underrated offseason storyline: nobody seems to have any idea what position Steele Chambers plays these days, and any clue we're given just adds more confusion.

Rumors started swirling of a potential position switch in the spring, just before this photo showed him lined up in what appears to be a defensive position, but still wearing a scarlet offense practice jersey.

A few days later, Ohio State assured us that despite the rumors, he was, in fact, still a running back.

That all seemed legit when he played the entire spring game at running back even though the Buckeyes were so thin at linebacker that long snapper Roen McCullough played extensively at the position.

But then, just last month, Chambers was seen working with the linebackers at one of Ohio State's recruiting camps.

It could have been nothing, but a couple of weeks later, he was photographed attending an outing linebackers unit, which seemed to all but confirm a position switch...

... until yesterday, when he was photographed attending a TopGolf outing with the running backs unit.

So basically, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

At the very least, I'd say the odds of him playing at least one snap on both sides of the ball this year are substantially higher than the odds that J.T. Tuimoloau plays two sports. Take that as you will.

 QB1 TALKS QBs. Justin Fields will be yielding his throne to one of three worthy heirs in just a few weeks, he just doesn't know which one quite yet.

But the good news is, all three have his stamp of approval.

“I know coach Day is going to have a tough decision when he's choosing his starting quarterback,” Fields said. “They're all great, so it should be fun.

“C.J., he has a big body (and) strong arm. Jack, he throws a great ball. I haven't seen much of Kyle, of course, because I wasn't here with Kyle. But I've heard he's a hard worker. I've heard he's a dawg. So I'm excited for all of them.”

Day has preached the importance of the quarterbacks focusing on continuous improvement, not where they stand in the competition. Fields had similar advice.

“Just trust the process,” he said. “Control what they can and keep working. No matter who wins the starting job, anything can happen. It takes one play for them to be the guy up next.”

That was an extremely diplomatic response that gave absolutely nothing away and offered no headlines or bulletin board material, and I respect that.

HOWEVER, he did list Stroud first... Makes you think, for sure.

 PRAYING FOR CHAOS. If you were a citizen of the World Wide Web yesterday, I'm sure you saw the reports that Texas and Oklahoma are preparing to leave the Big 12 and petition to join the SEC.

It would certainly be a fascinating move on a number of fronts, but I'm a bystander who just wants to watch the world burn, so I'm praying for the hilarious scenario where they notify the Big 12 that they're leaving, then fail to get accepted by the SEC.

And that doesn't seem out of the question!

All we need is for two schools to embrace chaos and vote against it. Who do I bribe? I'll send Arby's.

 SONG OF THE DAY. "Feels Like Summer" by Childish Gambino.

 NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. How a baby-faced CEO turned a Farmville clone into a massive Ponzi scheme... An extremely creepy Russian Mafia prison is discovered and then immediately destroyed... Young salmon ‘go crazy’ in a German fish farm after allegedly poisoning themselves with cocaine... A sperm bank holds a contest to find out who has the the best jizz... China debuts the world's fastest train... Vanlifers are parting ways with their vans as the world reopens...

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