Choosing your quarterback is a lot like dating. First, you start out with a bunch of candidates. Some decide they’d be better off elsewhere. Some, you decide would be better off elsewhere.
Eventually, you cull down to three or four that could potentially be the long-term solution. They weed themselves out for the most part, but sometimes, your folks start wondering if you’re ever going to choose one to stick with or just keep having one over on Friday and the other over on Saturday for eternity.
The rub is that you don’t just choose one, because everyone else tells you that you need to make up your mind. You do it on your own time after you’ve gathered as much information as possible to make that right decision. Other things factor in that force haste with said decision, but if all is the same, you can take as long as you want so long as the participants don’t mind.
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Urban Meyer is going back to J.T. Barrett this weekend against Rutgers as the starter over Cardale Jones, who has kept a death grip on the job since being brought on in relief of an injured Barrett last year against Michigan.
What followed is one of the more surprising stories in recent college football history, but then he surprisingly won the gig this season to start.
Jones, at one point, lost this gig to Barrett last year after Braxton Miller went down. That’s what made him winning it this year surprising.
Ohio State hasn’t yet been tested to its wits’ end, so Meyer is in no hurry to make a lock-down decision, nor should he be until he senses the panic button on the team about to be pressed.
Meyer cited red zone and third down production as reasons that Barrett is getting the nod now, noting that Jones will still have a role in the games. In other words, don’t get too attached to the clipboard, Cardale.
Not to get too numbers-y, but Barrett is completing a staggering 83 percent of his passes in the red zone and has led the Buckeyes to touchdowns on 11 of 12 trips inside the 20. That’s a staggering number.
Meyer has wisely used Barrett in those red zone spots, knowing that if you’re eating ice cream, bringing out the spoon because it’s good at ice cream is more beneficial than sticking with the fork, which is better suited for non-ice cream things.
Again, back to dating. If you have the girl that doesn’t like fancy stuff, you’re doing a disservice to both of you by taking her to a symphony while the girl that likes that sort of stuff is back at home, where you’ll take her to get burgers and beers at a saloon tomorrow.
How far can this carry on? I suppose it depends on how long it takes for Ohio State to get tested, because then you start to learn about folks’ mentality quick, fast, and in a hurry. Maybe Meyer will continue to put his players only in spots where they’re destined to have their most success, leaning on one as a starter over the other.
I don’t do insider stuff very much, and this is not to say anything about Cardale Jones because it’s nothing about Cardale Jones … but if you talk to folks around Ohio State more ingrained in what they’re doing than the rest of us, Barrett has a leadership ability that is always talked about.
It’s not that Jones doesn’t. This stuff was said about him last year.
Even Meyer knows he’ll eventually need to get to the point where he picks a guy to roll the dice with, sink or swim. Career dating only lasts so long.
I think the dude has earned the latitude to make these sorts of executive decisions on whatever timetable he has.
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