Ohio State is faced with a decision at quarterback: J.T. Barrett or Cardale Jones?
by Danny Payne
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Ohio State has more luxury than any other college football program in the nation. The Buckeyes are the defending College Football Playoff Champions, have perhaps the two best quarterbacks in the Big Ten (Braxton Miller, the league’s two-time Offensive Player of the Year at quarterback, has moved to wide receiver), and a Heisman Trophy-worthy running back in Ezekiel Elliott.
Oh, by the way, head coach Urban Meyer’s defense was No. 19 in the nation in total defense last season.
Don’t tell that to Meyer, however. Despite what happened last year, he’s focused on not letting his team be complacent.
“There’s no perfect team. There’s no perfect program. And everyone deals with stuff,” he said. “You know, when you’re Ohio State or some of these other big-time programs, stuff becomes a major deal. And this is.”
By now, if you’re not convinced Ohio State is an embarrassment of riches, here’s one more thing — Meyer’s crew received the first-ever unanimous AP No. 1 ranking in the preseason poll. Yeah, the Buckeyes are that good.
But because they are that good, and there is that much talent in Columbus, there are decisions to make, particularly at quarterback. In case you’re unaware, after Miller suffered a season-ending injury fewer than two weeks before Ohio State’s 2014 opener, J.T. Barrett led the Buckeyes to an 11-1 regular season and won Big Ten Quarterback of the Year.
Then Barrett suffered a season-ending injury in the final game of the season against Michigan. Cardale Jones then finished the job and led the Buckeyes through three postseason games and to a national title.
So now the question: Barrett or Jones?
As of now, we don’t know. Meyer hasn’t given any indication so far, and we may not know until the Buckeyes take the field on Labor Day at Virginia Tech.
“We’ve seen that we can win with both Cardale and J.T.,” offensive tackle Taylor Decker said. “You put a guy in there, and our great players play great, and our offense works. Coach Meyer has taken this offense everywhere, and it’s worked with all different kinds of guys.”
Decker’s right. Ohio State was first in the Big Ten and ninth overall in total offense last year, and all signs point to history repeating itself this time around.
Defensively, Meyer and Company will be without one of their stars for the first game. All-everything defensive end Joey Bosa, along with offensive skill players Corey Smith, Jalin Marshall, and Dontre Wilson, are suspended for the first game of 2015 because of issues involving “marijuana and academics,” according to ESPN’s Joe Schad.
“Our defense is made for anybody to play in it. We’d love to have Joey, but we can’t have him for the first game,” defensive tackle Adolphus Washington said. “We can’t change up our whole defense just because of the absence of one person. Whoever that guy is, he’s going to be capable of going in and not having any falloff.”
Washington and linebacker Joshua Perry will lead the Buckeye defense in Bosa’s absence. But when Bosa does come back, the Big Ten will have to watch out. That defensive front is mean.
Of course, so is Ohio State’s whole team.
“We’re going and going as hard as you possibly can,” Meyer said.
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