Published: Thursday, 10/8/2015 COLLEGE FOOTBALL Meyer adjusting to different style with Jones at QB BY DAVID BRIGGSBLADE SPORTS WRITER COLUMBUS — Ohio State coach Urban Meyer made a big sacrifice when he picked Cardale Jones as his starting quarterback this season. And that was OK. If the 6-foot-5, 250-pound Jones was not built for the read-option quarterback run game that fueled his most prolific offenses, then he would use his imagination. “Do you just take the guy for scheme?” Meyer asked this week. “Or do you take the best guy at the time and build around what he can do?” Meyer chose the latter, opting for the greater potential of Jones over the more mobile and familiar J.T. Barrett. Rather than trying to shove a football into a golf hole — and going heavy on designed quarterback runs and option plays — Meyer rebuilt the offense around the strengths of Jones. The idea is for Jones to use his big right arm to stretch the field and leave the running to Ezekiel Elliott, who has enjoyed his most success with Jones on the field. Sometimes, the plan seems genius. Sometimes, it does not. Through five imperfect weeks this season, the top-ranked Buckeyes (5-0) continue to adjust to a very different-looking offense. Most notable is the almost complete disappearance of the quarterback run game. A year after Jones proved an effective dual threat in the postseason, he has run for 127 yards this season — 99 of which came in the opener at Virginia Tech. Compare that to last year, when Barrett and Elliott nearly split the rushing duties. When Barrett broke his ankle in the fourth quarter of the Michigan game, he had 938 rushing yards on 171 caries while Elliott had 1,132 yards. (Elliott had 746 in 12-plus quarters with Jones last year.) And that’s the Meyer prototype, dating to Josh Harris at Bowling Green. Harris ran for 614 yards in 2001, then 737 yards and 20 touchdowns in 2002, using a dual-threat blueprint followed by all of Meyer’s best quarterbacks: Utah’s Alex Smith, Florida’s Tim Tebow, and Buckeyes quarterback-turned-receiver Braxton Miller. Meyer’s only drop-back passers were Chris Leak (77 carries for 30 yards in 2006) and John Brantley (52 carries for minus-111 yards in 2010). “The quarterback run game obviously depends on who the quarterback is,” Meyer said. “You’d like to have that. The threat of that cleans up defenses for you. …
Continue Reading: OSU’s Mr. Adaptable
