Urban Meyer Has 9 Weeks to Settle on a Quarterback

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ezekiel Elliott squirmed, gritted his teeth and turned away, as if he had just been swallowed up in the backfield for a rare tackle for loss.

Only it wasn’t a 300-plus-pound defensive lineman standing in front of the Ohio State running back, rather a herd of reporters. But upon being asked to evaluate the Buckeyes’ quarterback situation through the first two weeks of the 2015 season, Elliott soon found himself searching for daylight ahead.

“Um,” Elliott said, twisting away while forcing a grin. “No comment.”

The question wasn’t necessarily an uncomfortable one—at least it wasn’t supposed to be at this point in the season. With two weeks down and two to go in Ohio State’s nonconference slate, many figured the defending national champions would have more clarity at quarterback by now after nearly seven months of competition between Cardale Jones and J.T. Barrett.

But following a lackluster performance from the Ohio State offense—and most notably, the quarterback position—in its 38-0 win over Hawaii on Saturday, the Buckeyes’ situation at signal-caller is anything but settled. Both Jones and Barrett played, but neither did so remarkably, with both players posting quarterback ratings below 50 on the day.

Searching for a spark after a sluggish start, Meyer had made the call to switch from Jones to Barrett midway through the second quarter but turned back to Jones for the start of the second half. Meyer then stuck with the…

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