Former Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones will always be a legend in Columbus. His three-game run as the original third-string to starter that led the Buckeyes to an inaugural College Football Playoff national championship in 2014 is a story that will live on in the lore of Ohio State football history.
However, to hear former Buckeye head coach Urban Meyer reflect on things, there wasn’t exactly confidence in what Jones could do when handed the keys to the offense. While appearing on the “Triple Option” podcast, Meyer went into the wayback machine to talk about when J.T. Barrett, who was the backup to the injured Braxton Miller himself, went down with a broken leg against Michigan. His initial concern was for Barrett, but then the gravity of the situation set in, knowing that Jones had to enter the game and find a way to save the season.
To say that Meyer wasn’t too confident in “12-gauge” might be an understatement.
“J.T. Barrett goes down, and Mickey Marotti, our strength coach, gives me the signal, which means he broke his leg, and I was like ‘Oh God, I love this kid, and he’s down.’ And then all of a sudden reality sets in,” Meyer on the podcast. “12-Gauge, I don’t think he was 12-Gauge yet; it was Cardale Jones was my starting quarterback. It’s probably five degrees in that damn stadium. I look at Cardale — he won’t look me in the eye — and he’s staring out at the field after he takes a couple of snaps, and he is sweating his (expletive) off. He’s sweating like that kid that’s getting ready to take a physics test, and he has no idea; he never studied physics. I wasn’t sure if he taped his ankles because I remember we had an issue about that. But I — you know Cardale is such a big dude — I grab him by the shirt, and I say ‘here’s the play, you can do this Cardale,’ and I give him the play, and I kept yelling at him, ‘you can do this Cardale, you can do this.’ And I hit him on the tail, on the butt, and he kind of jogs out there, and I’m thinking ‘there’s no way in hell he can do this.'”
And while Meyer wasn’t sure Jones was ready for the spotlight, he proved that he was in three games after that Michigan game. That’s not to say that ‘The Game’ was smooth, but Jones eventually showed his worth.
“And he really didn’t do it in that game, we had a strip sack for a touchdown, Zeke (Ezekiel Elliott) broke a fourth and one, and we got out of that with a win,” Meyer said. “But the next three were legendary. I mean, his transformation from Cardale Jones, a third-string quarterback, to the national champ was phenomenal.”
It just goes to show you that sometimes not even the coaches know for sure what a guy is made of. Prior to the memorable run to the national championship, Jones’ claim to fame was a Tweet that said, “Why should we have to go to class if we come here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS.”
Not only did Jones become a major factor in bringing a national title to Ohio State, but he also ended up getting his degree from Ohio State, so in reality, he got the best of both worlds and maybe even grew up both on the field and off of it.
And all of Buckeye Nation is grateful.
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This article originally appeared on Buckeyes Wire: Urban Meyer reflects on nervously entering Cardale Jones vs. Michigan
Reporting by Phil Harrison, Buckeyes Wire / Buckeyes Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
