Skull Session: Ohio State’s Spring Game is Tomorrow, Sonny Styles is Working To End Youth Homelessness and A Former NFL Executive Claims C.J. Stroud is Difficult to Coach

By Chase Brown on April 14, 2023 at 5:00 am
Sonny Styles
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Ohio State's spring game is tomorrow.

Will you be there?

Let's have a good Friday, shall we?

 IT IS TIME. Before Ohio State's matchup with Georgia in the CFP, I featured Buckeye Productions' Peach Bowl trailer for the team in the Skull Session. You all loved and praised it for its quality and attention to detail, as did I. With that in mind, there was no better way to start the final Skully before the spring game than with another trailer from Buckeye Frank.

Get ready to have chills.

On Saturday, Kyle McCord, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Cade Stover will offer a sneak peek at what Ohio State's offense could look like in 2023, while JT Tuimoloau, Mike Hall Jr. and Jack Sawyer will look to represent the Rushmen with pride as Denzel Burke and Co. will look to restore BIA to its former glory.

Of course, there will be several other players to watch in the scrimmage, namely the younger, more inexperienced Buckeyes. On offense, Carnell Tate, Jelani Thurman and almost the entire offensive line, and on defense, C.J. Hicks, Davison Igbinosun, Sonny Styles and Kye Stokes, among others.

It will be a fun day at Ohio Stadium. I can't wait to see what it holds.

 SONNY STYLES, EVERYONE. Sonny Styles is becoming one of my favorite Buckeyes. Not only is he a stud on the field, coming to Ohio State as the No. 12 overall prospect in the class of 2022 and earning defensive snaps as a freshman, but he has repeatedly shown his priorities are in order off the field, too.

The most recent example of the latter came this week when Styles announced his partnership with the Huckleberry House, a non-profit that supports at-risk and homeless youth in Central Ohio. Next week, Styles will bring awareness to youth homelessness as he sleeps outside COSI in downtown Columbus as part of the Huckleberry House Sleep Out Campaign in Columbus.

The article linked in Styles' tweet directs users to the Huckleberry House website, where Sonny and his brother, Lorenzo – who will enter his third year as a wide receiver at Notre Dame in 2023 – wrote a message to friends, family, Ohio State fans and Notre Dame fans and asked all to consider a donation to the Sleep Out Campaign.

Lorenzo and I had the opportunity to visit the Huckleberry House in January to see the the work they are doing in the community for the homeless youth.  On the field we are battling for a championship, but off the field these young people are battling a far tougher opponent. Please join us in the battle against youth homelessness by donating today. Unfortunately, Lorenzo will not be able to attend in person as he will be in South Bend, but I will be sleeping out in front of COSI on April 21 to show OUR support for the 2023 Huckleberry House Sleep Out Campaign and to show solidarity with the youth who experience homelessness on a daily basis.

We both THANK YOU for taking the time to read this, and please know any contribution makes a difference. Please click the green Donate button to support the 2023 Huckleberry House Sleep Out Campaign. All donations go directly to Huckleberry House & Huckleberry House is a U.S. tax-exempt 501 (c) (3) organization.

Thank you,

Lorenzo & Sonny

When this article was written, Sonny and Lorenzo had raised more than $2,500 toward their $5,000 goal. Anyone who wishes to donate to their fund can click here and contribute. Here are some facts to consider before, during and after you donate to the Sleep Out Campaign:

  • 1 in 7 children will run away before the age of 18.
  • 1 in 10 18-24 year olds endures some form of homelessness each year.
  • 1 in 20 young adults is couch-surfing for shelter.
  • Over 50% of young people in shelters and on the streets report that their parents told them to leave or knew they were going and didn't care.

Cheers to Sonny and Lorenzo for their efforts to end youth homelessness in Columbus. Seeing those with a platform use their power and influence for good always makes me smile, and the Styles brothers are doing precisely that with this fundraiser. That's worthy of what Chris Lauderback would call some “hat tips.”

 YEAH, OKAY, PAL. Former NFL executive Michael Lombardi had what I believe will be known as the coldest of all cold takes about the 2023 NFL draft when we look back on it five, 10, 15, 20 years (to infinity and beyond) from now.

On his podcast "The Lombardi Line" on VSiN, a sports betting network based out of Las Vegas, Lombardi said he's uncertain whether the Carolina Panthers or Houston Texans will want to choose C.J. Stroud with the first and second picks in the draft because NFL scouts, coaches and executives he's spoken with believe the former Ohio State quarterback is difficult to coach.

"C.J. Stroud's an interesting guy. When you talk to people in the league, they'll tell you C.J. Stroud is not — this is not a knock, this is just a conversation — not an easy guy to coach. I think the word that people use is he's very not believing in what you're saying, and so he's a little bit challenging to coach. So it's not like he comes in and embraces it, he's got a little bit of a different style to him.

"He thinks he knows a little bit better. He's probably hard to coach. I'm not saying he's not a good player. I'm not saying that at all.  I'm just saying the vibe you get from talking to people that have interviewed him is that he's not an easy guy to coach. What I've done is I've asked people, I said, 'You know, I heard C.J. Stroud's not an easy guy to coach,' and everybody echoes that back to you. I'm not saying he's not a good player. I like C.J. Stroud. Would I pick him at two? I don't know."

I mean... what?

This is the first time I have ever heard someone claim Stroud is difficult to coach, and of course, it comes from someone outside of the mainstream media. Mel Kiper Jr., Todd McShay, Matt Miller, Louis Riddick, Dane Brugler, pick any of those analysts and ask them about Stroud, and I am sure they would have great things to say about the man. But we are supposed to take Lombardi at his word?

The only reasonable explanation for this ridiculous take is that Lombardi owed someone in the Colts or the Lions' front offices (i.e., teams that hold the No. 4 and No. 6 picks, respectively, and could use quarterbacks for the future). That person calls in a favor for Stroud's coachability to be questioned in the media, his stoinks drop and he lands with one of those teams.

Orrrrrrrr... Lombardi is lookin' for clicks.

Either way, it's a low blow to trash someone's character and send that message to the masses, especially when Stroud cannot immediately respond to those accusations. And the compliment sandwich Lombardi offered – ooh, I can feel the frustration swell up inside me – "He's good, but he's difficult to coach! I like him, but he's not easy to work with!"

GOH.

 TIM WALTON, THE RAPPER? The Ohio State football Twitter account posted a video on Thursday of cornerbacks coach Tim Walton Mic'd Up for the Buckeyes' 13th spring practice on Wednesday. Like many Mic'd Up videos, regardless of the person or the sport, it's well worth the watch.

It feels appropriate to end this Skull Session with Walton's rap about Saturday's spring game featured at the end of the video. I'll add the ad-libs of Ohio State's cornerbacks after each of Walton's bars.

Spring ball coming to an end. Mmmm

Our honor we must defend. Mmmm

When a pup is young, some bark some bite.

So when it's older, we gotta see if he's about that life. Mmmm

Saturday about to be here, we have to find out what we're about.

If there's gon' be a resurrection of BIA, we must make sure we leave no doubt. Mmmm

Dont' worry about the crowd. Don't get distracted by the fans.

It gon' work out for our good, cause it's all in God's plan. Yessssssssir!

Buckeye Nation, let's have some fun tomorrow because once the clock hits triple zeroes in the fourth quarter, the real offseason will have officially started, and there will be no more action until August. That's a long way away, so we may as well appreciate the time we have to soak in some football before the three-month hiatus.

 SONG OF THE DAY. "Script Ohio" by The Best Damn Band in the Land.

 CUT TO THE CHASE. Ohio State's presidential search committee to hold public forums... "Just Mercy" author Bryan Stevenson to deliver spring 2023 commencement address... Pet arrives home, dog-tired, after Alaskan sea-ice odyssey... Hundreds of thousands of dimes stolen from parked truck... The world's shortest dog is Pearl, a dollar-sized diva who loves dressing up.

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