Skull session: Ryan Day delved into the Playbook Against Clemson, Ohio-owned Brent Venables, and Buckeye’s offensive fighting was perfect

Skull session: Ryan Day delved into the Playbook Against Clemson, Ohio-owned Brent Venables, and Buckeye’s offensive fighting was perfect

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Eat shit, Dabo.

I spent many hours online tormented by the very existence of Dabo Swinney not to throw that phrase in a big red banner at the top of this site on the second Ryan Day who finished throwing Clemson in a trash.

Elegant? Nah. But I don’t have a classroom here. You don’t get an elegant answer when you’re stripped and skinned during prime time on television, after spending weeks arguing that the skinning team didn’t even belong in the game in the first place.

And it seems that the state of Ohio shares my sentiment!

If you don’t know what that means, first of all, I salute you for not spending an irrational amount of time online. Second, I would like to direct you here.

Dabo and Clemson have been saying and doing all the wrong things for years – the “accidental” story of PED that nobody ever talks about, the weird ass of grabbing a gooch at the 2016 Fiesta Bowl, the theft of plaques, the annoying annoyance of “little old Clemson”, the basketball assistant Clemson who basically claimed that the football team was good at cheating – and they were finally examined harder than that guy who was defeated by a can of Twisted Tea in that viral video.

The way the game played out made me feel like I imagine the heroine must feel, but more than that, Friday night’s victory brought a deep sense of relief to my injured and injured Buckeye soul.

As much as you might have tried to turn a loss into something good and excusable (and you know that everyone who writes Buckeye words online would do it), the State of Ohio needed to win this game. I had.

Imagine talking all year about wanting redemption for last year’s game and losing. Imagine switching to 0-5 life span against Clemson and 0-2 since Ryan Day took over. Imagine having to hear that Justin Fields is not in the Trevor Lawrence galaxy as a defender. Imagine watching Alabama and Clemson play again in the title game, solidifying the narrative that college football is just Alabama and Clemson, so everyone. Imagine another year of hearing that the Buckeyes simply cannot beat the Tigers and having to feel a rage like that of Michigan for missing another opportunity.

Instead, the state of Ohio rolled Clemson, had its redemption last year, killed the narrative that the Buckeyes cannot beat the Tigers and ended Trevor Lawrence’s career with the worst game of his life while Justin Fields played his best game. In addition, Ryan Day now moves to a 1-1 draw against Dabo, with everyone in the world knowing that the only reason not to be 2-0 is because of an Oceans 11 assault on the first encounter.

And throughout this year’s long narrative that Clemson and Alabama dominate college football, with a title game victory, the state of Ohio will tie Alabama and Clemson in the most national titles in the era of college football. And there is nothing to convince me that Nick Saban will not be the next trainer for Buckeye wood chipper.

TL; DR, Ryan Day played Dabo Swinney in an unmarked grave on Friday night, and the next one by Nick Saban.

Let’s go wild.

Word of the day: Exultant.

SANDBAGING? Did you think Ohio State looked like a completely different team on both sides of the ball, with much more creativity and a completely different handbook and layout?

You are not alone!

This is almost what is most like the aluminum foil that I will write in these Sessions of the Skull, but after consulting several people who know much more about football than I do, I think there is a shocking amount of evidence to suggest that the state from Ohio did exactly what Golic described, rehearsing hell outside of the regular season and actually pulling his entire handbook for the first time against Clemson.

Does Ryan Day really have balls big enough to show Clemson absolutely nothing useful in the film throughout the season and devote all his efforts to game planning for the playoffs, knowing that his talent can just get him there? I’ll let you decide that. But if that was really what happened, Bama could be in the shit too.

Regardless of how it happened, the game plan and playcalling on Friday night was nothing short of pornographic.

VENABLES ABSOLUTELY STARTED PANTS. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get over the fact that Ryan Day openly shouted Brent Venables for his notorious plaque-stealing operation, then spent three hours on Friday night working on his defense like he never did before.

There have been several times when Clemson players seemed to have no idea what was going on and were not even able to line up in any training, much less effective. And there is a reason for that!

The results: it was the best passing performance in the State of Ohio and the worst defensive performance by Clemson in years.

Let’s start with the compliment. Bucks’ EPA per pass play was 0.93 – almost an unexpected point added per pass. It is by far his biggest mark in the past six seasons, with a 2017 game in Nebraska coming in second with 0.89. That value of 0.93 was the tenth highest in a single game this season. As for Clemson’s defense, it was the worst day in a long time. In the past six seasons, nothing has even remotely come close to allowing 0.93 EPA per move. The second largest is Alabama in 2015, with just 0.43. In fact, in those six years, Clemson has given up on positive EPA per pass through play only 17 times in 82 games. It’s almost as if Clemson forgets to watch the Ohio State movie, regardless of how many games the Buckeyes played.

The Tigers had trouble aligning themselves all night with the pace of Ohio by attacking them. A long touchdown by Trey Sermon early in the game came out quickly from the gates because Clemson had no players on the left side of the Ohio State formation when the snap was made. Tigers also found themselves covering a large amount of unused grass. There are plays in which more than a few Tiger defenders are in the same general area, while Buckeye receivers fly across the field in more open areas.

Our thanks to Ryan Day and his technical team for making a good game plan. Using the fast pace to create confusion against Clemson’s three-point security defense. That was the defense that gave Fields space in last year’s semifinals. Not this year. Fields played with any security guard who was in the middle of the field and in the depths. This is where the game was won and lost. If the middle of the field was open, Fieldds acted calmly and dropped bombs continuously. If it was closed, Fields would check the ball for his running back, who still took the first down and kept the drive alive. Touchdown for Checkdown.

Serious question – is it really fair to call you one of the top defensive coordinators in college football if you are completely ineffective in calling up a defense against an elite team, unless you know exactly what game they are going to play?

Asking for a well-paid assistant who has just been exposed as the damn Wizard of Oz.

LIKE A PROUD FATHER. If your brain didn’t immediately think of Tyvis Powell when he saw Sevyn Banks take that end game interception out of the final zone, you should probably watch the 2015 Sugar Bowl a few more times.

The only difference is that Sevyn had people blocking him while Tyvis was trying to shake up teammates trying to take him down too.

FROM PRACTICE TO GAME. I’m not sure if there was a better unit in showing how work in the field of practice can translate into game success than Brian Hartline’s wide receivers.

Hell, Mrs. Hartline is even taking action.

It probably helps when the receiver’s coach was working on the NFL cornerbacks less than six years ago and it looks like he can still play today.

PERFECT PROTECTION. Want to know the secret of playing a quarterback who may have broken ribs? Perfect pass protection from your offensive tackles.

Remember when Clemson stole Jackson Carman from Ohio in a massive coup? It’s hilarious that the Buckeyes still ended up with two better starting tackles.

SONG OF THE DAY. “Funeral Dirge” for Dabo Swinney and his Clemson Tigers.

NOT SUITABLE FOR SPORTS. A man wielding a bat injures several people in New York City during a wave of crazy crimes … A man thought that the shrunken heads of the Amazon were the key to curing cancer and spent his entire life trying to prove it … invaders threaten with death the archaeologist who discovered the oldest city in the Americas …
The benefits of having many lovers …

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