Badgers not preparing any differently for Buckeyes QB Jones in first start
MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin head coach Gary Andersen had been home all of five minutes Saturday night when his youngest son, Chasen, placed a YouTube clip of Cardale Jones' high school highlight reel in his path.
"I was expecting to maybe sit down, watch a game and all of a sudden, he throws that in front of me and says, 'Dad, this guy's really good,'" Andersen said Sunday on the Big Ten championship game coaches teleconference. "First time it's happened. Good scouting on him, I guess."
Andersen has seen little else of Jones and Ohio State's team this season. But that certainly will change in the coming days as No. 14 Wisconsin (10-2, 7-1) prepares to play No. 6 Ohio State (11-1, 8-0) Saturday night in the title game in Indianapolis. Jones, a little-used quarterback in his brief college career, will be front and center for the Buckeyes after starter J.T. Barrett sustained a season-ending right ankle fracture in the fourth quarter of Saturday's game against Michigan.
"It's his show," Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer said of Jones. "He's got the keys to the car. He's already been in studying film and getting ready to go."
The fact Badgers coaches and players have such little tape on Jones isn't likely to faze a defense that ranks second nationally in total defense (260.3 yards per game) and second in passing defense (156.6 yards). But it is something everyone in the program must be aware of entering the game.
Jones is a 6-foot-5, 250-pound sophomore from Cleveland, Ohio. Barrett is a 6-1, 225-pound freshman from Wichita Falls, Texas. And though each player will operate out of the same offensive system, Jones' size advantage is noticeable.
"He's big," Meyer said. "He can run over, run around, jump over people. So he's got it all athletically."
This season, Jones has appeared in seven games and completed 10 of 17 passes for 118 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. He took over for Barrett on Saturday with Ohio State leading Michigan 28-21 in the fourth quarter. Jones rushed for 18 yards and completed two short throws for seven yards before tailback Ezekiel Elliott busted a 44-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-one to essentially put the game away.
Still, Jones would appear to face the daunting task of making his first college start on the biggest of stages in the conference title game, all while trying to replace a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate. Barrett set school records for total touchdowns (45), passing touchdowns (34) and total yards (3,772) and led the nation in touchdowns this season before sustaining his injury.
Vegas oddsmakers likely would have favored Ohio State -- winners of 24 consecutive Big Ten regular season games over three years with Meyer in charge -- if Barrett were healthy. Instead, Wisconsin is listed as a three-point favorite.
Meyer said Jones would be the beneficiary of a much more experienced huddle than what Barrett had to start the season because Ohio State's entire offense had grown. The Buckeyes rank fifth nationally in scoring offense (44.1 points per game) and have four players that have caught at least 26 passes. For comparison's sake, Wisconsin has just one player with at least 26 catches this season.
Jones led Cleveland Glenville (Ohio) High School to a 24-3 record as a starting quarterback and was named third-team Division I all-state by the Associated Press as a senior. That year, he threw for 1,689 yards with 22 touchdowns.
But much of what college football fans know about Jones stems from a regrettable tweet he sent two years ago. The tweet, now infamous and cited in nearly every preseason social media gathering of college football teams, read: "Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain't come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS."
Meyer promptly suspended Jones for the tweet. Since that time, however, Meyer has praised Jones' growth as both a student and as a person. Meyer described Jones as "just a mess" when he arrived at Ohio State in 2012 and noted his grades were poor.
"He has pretty good support back home from some people," Meyer said. "We had them down a couple times, and they weren't pleasant meetings. I noticed last year a complete transformation from this very immature person -- not just player -- to a much more mature person. And he really started to handle his business. In the classroom, he's doing very good. He has taken care of his business. He has matured tremendously in the last two years."
How Jones comports himself on the field Saturday ultimately will determine whether Wisconsin or Ohio State captures the Big Ten championship. But Andersen insists his players won't prepare any differently for a new quarterback.
"I'm sure Ohio State's going to stay within their offensive scheme and do what they do," Andersen said. "They have some tremendous athletes. I'm sure this young man that is playing quarterback now is very talented."
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