First of all let’s take a deep breath after that win this past Saturday against Western Michigan. While there are still plenty of things that we need to improve on, the offense finally showed some flashes of its past self. Zeke was able to break away on a few nice runs. We were able to make some plays when it mattered, and Cardale was able to make some throws that he had not made since the VT game. But, as I watch the game I always keep my eye on Twitter to see what everyone thinks about the game and I was surprised at how many people were still upset that Cardale was still the QB. So, here are some reasons why I think Jones is the right choice.
First, Coach Urban Meyer has decided that Cardale is the best option for the Buckeyes right now. Honestly that should be the end of the conversation. We are talking about a guy that brought us our first national title in 12 years. A guy that has brought in the best talent that Ohio State has probably ever seen.
Urban gets to watch these guys in practice every single day, he sees things that w do not get to see so if anyone is going to know who is best suited to lead this team, it is THE Urban Meyer.
Secondly, it seems like people have forgotten the things that Cardale was able to do for OSU last year. In his first three starts he proceeded to beat Wisconsin, Alabama, and Oregon. When you really sit down and think about that, it is incredible. I don’t think there is another player in college football that would be able to gel with a team that fast to be able to beat 3 of the best teams in the country.
There is no doubt that so far this year Jones has not been able to perform as well as he did last year. In fact not even close to what he expected from him, but is that really all his fault to this point? I think not. First of all, he is dealing with a new QB coach along with a new play caller. There is no doubt that there was something about Tom Herman and the way that he coached/ called plays that made guys comfortable in the offense. Both Jones and JT proved that, but this year you can tell that not everyone is on the same page. So is that Cardale’s fault? Not in my opinion.
Another factor that people tend to forget about is the fact that last Saturday was only Cardale’s 7th start for Ohio State. I mean that is insane if you think about what he has accomplished. The kid had his first ever start in the Shoe just 3 weeks ago. His talent in undeniable and Urban obviously sees that and thinks ,with time, he will be the guy that has the best chance to lead this team successfully. If you really look at the game Saturday, things were better than the last two weeks. I noticed that people were really upset with a few of Cardale’s undergrowth balls, as was I, but at least he is starting to go down field. It felt like for 2 games straight we didn’t even attempt going down field, so it’s going to take some time for him to get some chemistry with these guys.
In conclusion, I have to say that during the off season I really thought the coaching staff would go with JT as the starter. It just seemed like everything was pointing in that direction, but when 12 Gauge walked out on the field it felt exciting to me. That was great for a game, but in both the Hawaii and the NIU I was right along with everyone else calling for JT, but the bottom line is JT didn’t perform much better. He has every opportunity in 2 different games to take over and make the team his! But, that didn’t happen so at the end of the day if Cardale is out performing in practice than he should be the starter. Thanks for reading and Go Bucks!
Not enough is being written about the fact that Urban has scrapped the offensive schemes he used last year. I also was on “team JT,” on the assumption that OSU would continue where it left off: running a spread, zone-read offense with a deep threat. This year they have changed to a pro-style attack, which makes sense for a player like Cardale.