Bama’s defense deals with the riddle of Ohio State qb Cardale Jones

  NEW ORLEANS– Cardale Jones has waited longer than expected to be the “Next Man Up” on Ohio State’s football team. Ohio State’s 6-5, 255-pound redshirt sophomore started this pre-season as a third string quarterback, listed behind two-year starter Braxton Miller and redshirt freshman J.T. Barrett on Urban Meyer’s deep, talented depth chart..

    He looked like he might be shackled to the bench behind those two Heisman candidates. But then fate stepped in. Miller suffered a season ending torn labrum in his right shoulder 12 days before the regular season opener and Barrett, who hadn’t played a down since high school but stepped in to guide his Buckeyes to an 11-1 season, broke his ankle against Michigan, opening the door for Jones, the prodigal son, to take his spot in the limelight as fourth-ranked Ohio State (12-1) prepares for its epic encounter against top-ranked Alabama (12-1) in the national championship semi-finals Thursday at the All State Sugar Bowl game here Thursday night.

   “Personally, this is the biggest game, hands down” Jones said. “It’s a one game season, the first ever college football playoff. This is the game that goes to the national championship. It’s humbling for me because this is a point in my career that I always wanted to be at,” Jones said. “Then again, we still have to get jt job done as far as winning this game.”

   This is the same Cardale Jones who had been characterized as a lazy, troubled kid after his infamous tweeter post in Oct. 12 in which he said, “Why should we hake to go to class, if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come to play SCHOOL, classes are pointless.” This is the the same Jones who spoke with Urban Meyer and took accountability for his immature actions after a near fatal mistake and became Ohio State’s Scholar Athlete the next two terms with a 3.0 GPA. And this is the same Cardale Jones who stepped onto center stage when Ohio State needed him the most, passing for 257 yards and three TDS as the Buckeyes blitzed, then buried Wisconsin, 59-0, to win the BIG title game and made a compelling enough argument to be included in college football first four team playoff.

   Jones got a glimpse of his future when he was just eight years old and was playing defensive end of the local youth football team. Ted Ginn Sr., the legendary coach of Glenville, Oh. High in Cleveland, watched Jones throw the ball and sensed he might have a future at quarterback. Jones waited until his junior year to become Glenville’s starting quarterback and another two years and 12 games at Ohio State to elevate himself from mop up duty to instant stardom .

   There is no guarantee Jones will remain on top of the mountain when spring practice begins. He will be competing for the starting job against two Heisman candidates. ” I leave that to the coaches,” Jones said, “because they’re going to have three good quarterbacks coming back next year. Like I said, I’m coming back next year. so none of us are thinking about leaving or anything like that. I’ll leave it up to coaches to figure it out. i don’t allow myself to think about tomorrow ”

   This is Jones’ his moment and his ability run read option plays as a passer and rusher will go a long way toward determining whether the Buckeyes can solve the riddle of Alabama’s sophisticated, ferocious defense. “By far, this will be the best defense we’ve played against all year, the most physical defense we’ve played all year, and the fastest defense we’ve played all year,” Jones said. “They’ve got some unbelievable guys on defense that we do our best to simulate and get that look.”

    Alabama is huge.

    “I see an extreme amount of depth,” Ohio State offensive coordinator Tom Herman said. “They are very physical up front. /They’ve got defensive ends that are weighing in at 280, 290 pounds. They’re got defensive tackles that are 320, 330 pounds. “They have linebackers 225, 260 pounds. So they are really big, really physical and very difficult to move. They’ll probably play nine to ten defensive lineman and two sets of linebackers. So they’re very deep up front and then with a good mix of speed and size in the back end.”

    Jones has spent countless hours in the film room studying the Tide. “There’s been countless hours, dating back to last year’s Sugar Bowl, just trying to be prepared for any and everything,” Jones said. “It’s not so much exotic, but I would say they’re a schematic defense. They prepare for the team they play that week, and they change their looks to defeat that team’s offense. “Nick Saban and Alabama’s coaching staff have seen it all. We’re not trying to fool anybody here. We’re trying to come out and play football.”

    Saban and his defensive coordinator Kirby Smart only have snippets of information on Jones as they try to come up with a defensive game plan to shut him down. Jones has only thrown 18 passes, all against Wisconsin. “This guy is very, very capable,” Saban claimed. “He’s a very good passer. Big strong, athletic guy who can do all the things the other guy (Barrett) could do in terms of the quarterback runs. It’s just a little different style, that’s all. We did see him play almost a game and a half. And he pretty must did what the other guy did. “The one thing he did really well was pass the ball. He made some really good throws in the Wisconsin game, big plays down the field. Which the other guy did, too, so we have a tremendous amount of respect what this guy can do.”

   “Not knowing how he reacts to different things would be the toughest thing,” Smart said. “You don’t know how he’s going to react in certain situations. You haven’t seen enough tape to know. That’s probably the hardest thing for us to get prepared for is we’re watching one quarterback (Barrett) in a lot of games, yet we’re going to face a different quarterback. So knowing what they want to do with that guy makes it harder, tougher to get ready for.”

    On the flip side, Jones’ lack of game experience makes him vulnerable to the Tide in terms of playing mistake free football against the Tide’s multiple blitzes and coverages on a stingy defense that has only allowed 312.4 yards per game., “I’m sure they will have a ton that he hasn’t seen,” Ohio State offensive coordinator Tom Herman said. “He hasn’t seen a lot, by the way. He only played 62 plays against Wisconsin. But I don’t think defenses game plan against quarterbacks. Defenses game plan against systems and plays and formations and tendencies and downs and distances. “Will they say, this is this kid’s strength or these are his weaknesses? Yes, but at the end of the day you’ve got to stop the entire machine.”

    The Buckeyes arrived in New Orleans leading the Big Ten in total offense (507.6 yards per game) and scoring (45.2) and ranking third in passing (246.8 yards per game). That’s all without Miller and mostly thanks to some masterful play calling by Herman to put Barrett in the right situations. Now, it’s time for Herman to use a little bit of that same quarterback whisperer magic on Jones to create a dent in Alabama’s suffocating defense.

    If Jones has any advantage, it will be that he will not have to win the game by himself. Jones will be surrounded by much more veterans than Barrett encountered in Week 1 against Navy and or Week 2 — a stunning loss to Virginia Tech. “To think Cardale has to go out there and win games by himself, that’s not going to happen,” Meyer said. “At one point we had nine new starters in the offense. That’s not the case right now.”

   Saban and Smart have kind of been down this road before. They adjusted on the fly to Garrett Gilbert in the BCS title win over Texas in the 2009 Rose Bowl and prepared for a completely different quarterback — and scheme — against Jordan Jefferson and LSU in their 2011 national championship win at the Sugar. Even though Ohio State has gone through three quarterbacks during this miraculous season, Saban is relying on the theory that the more things change, the more they remain the same. “We feel philosophically, they’re going to run their offense,” Saban said.

   “It’s just what part of it they might feature a little different. That’s the part we are not sure about.”