Cardale Jones tweeted it was a "life-changing decision," but it’s more like a “program-altering statement.”
Jones is daring Ohio State NOT to start him in 2015. Why go through the motions? Why go back to Ginn Academy in Cleveland with high school coach Ted Ginn Sr. to announce you were coming back to Ohio State next season? That's quite a production.
Then again, so was the last month. Jones enjoyed the most unprecedented three-games-and-change joyride of perhaps any third-string quarterback in college football history. He made sure Ohio State finished off Michigan. He led a 59-0 route in the Big Ten championship game. He beat the king of the SEC, and he delivered the program’s first national championship since 2002.
He’s daring Ohio State coach Urban Meyer to start someone else. Jones said he met with Meyer before making the decision.
“It wasn’t talked about so much, and he didn’t make any promises,” Jones said in front of a flock of reporters assuming this meant he was going to the NFL. “He told me what I have to do and what I have to improve on, and that was about it.”
The risk-reward standpoint for Jones also is a head-spinner. The upside to leaving for the NFL would be a possible second-round paycheck. The downside is returning to his spot as a third-string quarterback. Who knew it might be easier to start for the New York Jets than Ohio State in 2015?
Jones at least sounds confident he’s going to return to the starting spot when the Buckeyes open their national championship defense on Sept. 5 at Virginia Tech.
“With a full season of taking reps as a 1,” he said. “It will help me be the best quarterback I can be.”
In other words, he’s not backing down from a potential three-way competition with J.T. Barrett, who set the Big Ten record for total touchdowns (45) before suffering a fractured ankle, or Braxton Miller, who is 28-8 as a starter at Ohio State. This move might prompt Miller to think about that transfer considering LSU and Florida State are among the suitors.
Jones might be the best NFL prospect of the bunch. He’s a 6-foot-5, 250-pound sequoia who says he can throw a football between 80-to-85 yards. After watching some of the throws he made against Oregon on Monday, you believe him. Miller and Barrett, however, have played through the majority of a Big Ten regular season and are more dynamic runners. Can Jones display that same consistency over a full season?
This might be a nice problem to have, but Meyer now has to deal with that in spring practice with a never-ending line of questioning. Who is the starter? Who had the best reps today? Cardale, J.T. or Braxton? There’s no wrong answer, but there still has to an answer. That's going to consume Columbus every day until September.
Jones was supposed to take a third of the equation out on Thursday. Instead, he went on national television and indirectly-yet-directly staked his claim to the starting job. Look what I did over the last 40 days. Yeah, he’s daring the Buckeyes NOT to start him.
How can they say no with a straight face?
