By Danny Payne
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Despite a lackluster (isn’t it fun when a team scores 38 points and it’s considered lackluster?) showing from Ohio State against Hawaii last week, the Buckeyes won’t make any changes under center.
Head coach Urban Meyer said quarterback Cardale Jones is scheduled to start his third game of the season against Northern Illinois on Saturday. J.T. Barrett will back him up.
“We have one, and then one that’s going to play,” Meyer said on the Big Ten teleconference Tuesday. “It’s game to game and as of now, Cardale will start against Northern Illinois, and J.T. will be ready to go.”
Through two games, Jones has a 59.5 percent completion percentage and has thrown for 298 yards, 2 touchdowns, and an interception to go along with 104 rushing yards and a touchdown. Barrett has completed 56.3 percent of his attempts and has thrown for 96 yards and a touchdown. He has 47 rushing yards.
“If we’re going to say just J.T. will not play or if J.T. will eventually become the quarterback, and Cardale won’t play, I don’t think that’s going to happen, but I don’t want to make that statement,” Meyer said.
More trouble for Rutgers
Coming into the season, it would have been fair to call Illinois the biggest mess in the Big Ten. After all, firing a coach eight days before the season begins is unorthodox, to say the least.
But Rutgers has done more than enough to take the crown from the Illini. After five players were suspended last week, leading wide receiver Leonte Caroo was suspended indefinitely for an incident following the Scarlet Knights’ game Sept. 12.
According to a complaint filed in Piscataway municipal court, Caroo slammed a woman into the concrete following the Scarlet Knights’ loss on Sept. 12.
“No status change as of right now,” Rutgers head coach Kyle Flood said on Tuesday’s Big Ten teleconference. “I’m not at liberty to comment on the investigation, but there’s no status change for Leonte right now.”
The Scarlet Knights are 1-1 and open their Big Ten schedule Saturday at Penn State.
Northwestern climbs into polls
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the young 2015 season is that Northwestern is in the AP top 25.
With the Wildcats’ début in the poll, Big Ten teams now occupy four spots in the top 25 — Ohio State at No. 1, Michigan State at No. 4, Northwestern at No. 23, and Wisconsin at No. 24.
Northwestern is 2-0 with wins over Stanford and Eastern Illinois this season.
“We’ve been working hard to really teach our guys how to eliminate distractions,” Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “I thought we were a team that was distracted a year ago. We just really want to hone our focus.
“Three weeks ago, the only thing people were really talking about is that we might play in the toilet bowl around Thanksgiving — nobody was telling us that we’re really good.”
The Wildcats are scheduled to host Iowa Oct. 17.