COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – So far, at least, there is harmony and warm feelings surrounding the starting quarterback job at Ohio State. Of course, the defending national champion Buckeyes are still six months away from their season opener.
“They love each other. They cheer for each other, they help coach each other,” new quarterbacks coach Tim Beck said of the talented top three candidates for the job. “It’s a great group of guys.”
Still, everyone knows this could be a blueprint for team discord with three elite and proven starters at the position. Two will be disappointed.
Yet Cardale Jones and the injured J.T. Barrett and Braxton Miller remain good friends, rooting for each other and – at least for now – accepting of the fact that only one of them will take the first snap in the 2015 season opener.
“Braxton and Cardale help me and I try and do my best to help them,” said Barrett, fifth in the Heisman Trophy balloting last year and the first-team QB on the All-Big Ten team. “We feed off one another. If somebody does well, we cheer them on. There’s not any bad blood at all. We’re friends out here and we always try to help each other get better. Even off the field, we’re buddies.”
Jones was relatively unknown a year ago as a perennial backup for most of his first three years at Ohio State. He was handed the job when Barrett broke his ankle in the regular-season finale against Michigan. But he played almost flawlessly in leading the Buckeyes to a 59-0 laugher over Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game, a 42-35 upset of top-ranked Alabama in the national semifinals and a 42-20 rout of Oregon in the CFP championship game.
Continue Reading: For now, Buckeyes are 1 happy family at quarterback position
