Game Day Skull Session: Get Dumped Then, Akron

By Dan Hope on September 25, 2021 at 4:59 am
Brutus Buckeye
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Our hearts are heavy here at Eleven Warriors today.

As those of you who are regular readers of the Skull Session probably already know, our dear friend Kevin Harrish's mother was hospitalized with a serious illness for the past several weeks. Unfortunately, her valiant fight came to an end on Friday night.

You all know Kevin as the Arby's-loving, always humorous writer of this Skull Session, but I know Kevin as a colleague and friend, and my heart is hurting for him and his family today. On behalf of everyone here at Eleven Warriors, we're all sending our love to the Harrish family this weekend – and we hope you will, too.

We love having Kevin as a member of our team here, and we can't wait to have him back writing these Skull Sessions every weekday morning and every game day.

For today, I'll do my best to fill his seat – though I'm admittedly not nearly as funny or clever as he is – as we count down the hours until Ohio State's unusual non-Power 5 night game against Akron.

Word of the Day: Indelible.

 TODAY'S MENU. Since Ohio State's non-conference finale doesn't kick off until 7:30 p.m., you'll have plenty of time to kill until then. Led by a pair of top-18 matchups – Notre Dame vs. Wisconsin and Texas A&M vs. Arkansas – here's the full slate of games you can watch while you wait.

Matchup Time (ET) TV/Mobile
#2 Georgia at Vanderbilt 12:00pm SECN
Villanova at #6 Penn State 12:00pm BTN
FIU at Central Michigan 12:00pm ESPN+
Bowling Green at Minnesota 12:00pm ESPNU
New Hampshire at Pitt 12:00pm ACCNX/ESPN+
#12 Notre Dame vs. #18 Wisconsin 12:00pm FOX
Ohio at Northwestern 12:00pm BTN
Richmond at Virginia Tech 12:00pm ACCN
SMU at TCU 12:00pm FS1
Wagner at Temple 12:00pm ESPN+
Missouri at Boston College 12:00pm ESPN2
LSU at Mississippi State 12:00pm ESPN
Texas Tech at Texas 12:00pm ABC
Boise State at Utah State 12:00pm CBS
Miami (Ohio) at Army 12:00pm CBSSN
CCSU at #24 Miami (FL) 12:30pm RSN/ESPN3
UMass at #17 Coastal Carolina 1:00pm ESPN+
Toledo at Ball State 2:00pm ESPN+
San Jose State at Western Michigan 2:00pm ESPN+
Texas State at Eastern Michigan 2:00pm ESPN+
Maine at NIU 2:30pm ESPN3
Washington State at Utah 2:30pm P12N
UTSA at Memphis 3:30pm ESPNU
Towson at San Diego State 3:30pm Stadium
Wyoming at UConn 3:30pm CBSSN
#9 Clemson at NC State 3:30pm ESPN
Rutgers at #19 Michigan 3:30pm ABC
#14 Iowa State at Baylor 3:30pm FOX
Louisville at Florida State 3:30pm ESPN2
#7 Texas A&M vs. #16 Arkansas (in Arlington, TX) 3:30pm CBS
Colorado State at #5 Iowa 3:30pm FS1
Illinois at Purdue 3:30pm BTN
Kent State at Maryland 3:30pm BTN
Georgia State at #23 Auburn 4:00pm SECN
Kansas at Duke 4:00pm ACCN
Arkansas State at Tulsa 5:00pm ESPN+
Louisiana at Georgia Southern 6:00pm ESPN+
#24 UCLA at Stanford 6:00pm P12N
Texas Southern at Rice 6:30pm ESPN3
North Texas at Louisiana Tech 7:00pm Stadium
Navy at Houston 7:00pm ESPNU
#25 Kansas State at Oklahoma State 7:00pm ESPN+
Tennessee at #11 Florida 7:00pm ESPN
Nebraska at #20 Michigan State 7:00pm FS1
Kentucky at South Carolina 7:00pm ESPN2
Akron at #10 Ohio State 7:30pm BTN
#21 North Carolina at Georgia Tech 7:30pm ACCN
Southern Miss at #1 Alabama 7:30pm SECN
West Virginia at #4 Oklahoma 7:30pm ABC
Hawaii at New Mexico State 8:00pm FloFootball / CW El Paso
Indiana at WKU 8:00pm CBSSN
UAB at Tulane 8:00pm ESPN+
Florida Atlantic at Air Force 8:00pm FS2
Troy at ULM 8:00pm ESPN+
New Mexico at UTEP 9:00pm ESPN+
California at Washington 9:30pm P12N
USF at #15 BYU 10:15pm ESPN2
Arizona at #4 Oregon 10:30pm ESPN
Colorado at Arizona State 10:30pm ESPNU
Oregon State at USC 10:30pm FS1

 A HEART-WARMING STORY. Since we started with some sad news today, here's a feel-good story to raise your spirits.

Sarah Sue Morbitzer has dreamed of playing volleyball at Ohio State since she was a child, but her road to becoming a Buckeye wasn't easy. She was diagnosed two days after birth with a heart condition, Tetralogy of Fallot, that has required her to undergo three surgeries to fix her heart valves.

She hasn't let that stop her, though, from achieving her dream as a defensive specialist for the Buckeyes, who are currently ranked third in the country. NBC4's Whitney Harding documented Morbitzer's story.

 A BUCKEYE-ZIP CONNECTION. Former Ohio State wide receiver Devin Jordan will make his return to Ohio Stadium tonight as an offensive quality control coach for Akron.

Jordan, who played for the Buckeyes from 2003-05, talked to Lori Schmidt of The Columbus Dispatch about his journey into coaching, which can be directly attributed to his former head coach at Ohio State, Jim Tressel. After serving as a student coach at Ohio State, Jordan has gone on to coach at Wittenberg, Otterbein, Walsh, Malone and Youngstown State before landing his current position at Akron.

"I remember my senior day at Ohio State, coming out of the tunnel, running out, they announced my name, and coach (Jim Tressel) shook my hand and said, 'Stay in this game, Devin. ... You've got a bright future.' "

Beyond merely encouraging Jordan, Tressel offered him a position as a student coach. Among others, Jordan worked with a young Ohio State wide receiver named Brian Hartline.

 WINNERS. Kevin's a better bettor than I am, but I'll try my hand at making a few picks nonetheless.

  • Boston College +1 against Missouri. Eliah Drinkwitz isn't a fan of traveling to Massachusetts to play this game. Jeff Hafley is so excited to play Missouri, he says his team would have gone to Columbia to play this game. The game will be played in Chestnut Hill, though, and I'm rolling with the former Ohio State defensive coordinator to get the Eagles to 4-0.
  • Louisville -1.5 against Florida State. The Seminoles have yet to win a game this season, and one of their games was against an FCS school (Jacksonville State), so it feels like the Cardinals should be getting more than 1.5 points here even though this game will be played in Tallahassee.
  • West Virginia +17 against Oklahoma. Oklahoma has won its two games against FBS opponents this year by an average of just six points, and West Virginia is a better team than either Nebraska or Tulane.
  • Indiana -9 against Western Kentucky. The Hoosiers don't have the same mojo they did last year, but both of their losses are to top-10-ranked teams (Iowa and Cincinnati). Western Kentucky should be overmatched in this one.
  • Wyoming -30.5 against UConn. UConn isn't just the worst team in the Football Bowl Subdivision this year, it's looking like one of the worst teams in FBS history. The Huskies rank in the bottom five nationally in both scoring offense and scoring defense and have been outscored 146-21 in three games against FBS opponents (while they've also lost to Holy Cross). Wyoming, meanwhile, is 3-0 and won by 33 points against Ball State last week. The Cowboys should win by more this week.

 SONG OF THE DAY. “All My Love” by Led Zeppelin.

 NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. Okay, calm down Joel... Hogtied in C-Bus... Your arms can't possibly be that sweaty... The story of the Crypto Boat... HE'S GOING OVER THAT CLIFF... A rundown of the Theranos shakedown... A communal experience...

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