BLACKSBURG, Va. — Maybe you heard of this big offseason dilemma, a difficult and deliberate decision so perplexing it left no way out.
Until the only answer was to not do a damn thing.
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So that was Urban Meyer moments before his Ohio State offense ran onto the field in Monday’s season opener at Virginia Tech, waiting until the last possible second to pick his starting quarterback and end months of speculation.
Cardale Jones and JT Barrett both walked into the offensive huddle, and Jones ran out on the field.
“I started leaning toward the sideline like it wasn’t going to be me,” Jones said, “and then coach said, you’re in.”
Welcome, everyone, to choosing with your head over your heart. It took Meyer nine months, but he finally got where he should have been all along.
“It was very close,” Meyer said of the biggest story of the offseason. Then, almost on cue, he left the door open. “I thought (Jones) played OK. I expected more.”
This is where we are with the Ohio State Buckeyes — the same place we were when we last saw the team that last season eeked into the College Football Playoff and beat the ever-loving controversy out of it.
They did it with an uber-talented and goofy backup playing quarterback and a grown man playing tailback and so much talent all over the field, it couldn’t possibly matter who played quarterback.
Only it did.
So when Jones finally trotted out on the field to begin the 2015 season by picking up right where 2014 ended, it was clear why Meyer chose his head (a history of winning big games) over his heart (his adoration of all things Barrett): why mess with something that isn’t broken?
The quarterback who led your team on an improbable national championship run is the same guy charged with doing it again. The only difference this time is it’s his team.
For now, anyway.
“It’s still a competition,” Jones said. “I think we both realize that.”
What a strange and surreal ride these last 10 months have been. Why would we think this fall would be any different?
The quarterback with all of four career starts; the player who still hasn’t started a home game in Columbus and hasn’t played a Big Ten game on the road, now gets nine more games to hone his ridiculous (and still raw) skills and get the Buckeyes prepared for a winner-take-all one game regular season nearly three months away.
Between now and that Nov. 21 home game against Big Ten heavyweight Michigan State — the only team on the schedule Ohio State has to remotely pay attention to — Jones has nine games to prove Meyer made the right decision to sit Barrett, a team captain and undisputed team leader.
He took some big steps Monday night in a brutal environment, doing essentially what he did in the last three games of last season while replacing an injured Barrett. He made tough throws look easy; he ran with power and deceptive speed, and he made the Buckeyes’ offense multiple and dynamic.
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The only negative: he threw too much. Really, he did.
For some reason, Ohio State forgot it had the best player in college football in its backfield, and all but ignored star tailback Ezekiel Elliott after his first carry of the game went 80 yards for a touchdown.
It’s almost as if the Ohio State staff wanted to prove to everyone that Jones was the right choice; that benching Barrett, who had a Big Ten-record 45 total touchdowns last season, wasn’t as confounding as it sounded.
Elliott had 76 carries in three postseason victories over Wisconsin, Alabama and Oregon, running for 220, 230 and 246 yards in those games. Against Virginia Tech, he had all of 13 touches.
Only after Jones’ 10-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter put the game away did Barrett get his first snaps of the season. Clearly, this is Jones’ team.
Look, anyone who watched what Jones did in last year’s postseason — a run of three games that probably would have led to a first round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft had he left school early — knows he does what most quarterbacks at the collegiate level can’t.
There never really was a question of who gives Ohio State the best chance to win. The only question was if Meyer would let his heart outweigh his head.
“The way it ended last season, and the way he played (in fall camp),” Meyer said of Jones, “we kind of thought for him to not take the first snap, he had to be beaten out.”
The guy who has won big everywhere he has coached; who has an unbeaten season at Utah and two national titles at Florida and another national championship at Ohio State wasn’t about to let emotion enter this decision.
The best thing to do was don’t do anything.
Eventually, it could mean everything.