Cardale Jones knows exactly what it feels like to go from the background to the center of Ohio State’s biggest moments.
Back in 2014, he opened fall camp as the Buckeyes’ third-string quarterback. Braxton Miller had already been lost to a season-ending shoulder injury, and then J.T.
Barrett went down with a fractured ankle in the regular-season finale against Ohio State. Jones stepped in anyway, and what followed was a championship run that included wins over Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game, then No.
1 Alabama and No. 3 Oregon in the first four-team College Football Playoff.
That’s why Jones’ view of Ohio State’s current quarterback situation carries some weight.
“If you've got two quarterbacks, you've got none," Jones said on "The Script" podcast this week. "If I'm Ryan Day and I'm on this offensive staff, I'm making sure whoever I let go out there and be the starting quarterback feel like we are gonna win or lose with this guy."
Ryan Day still hasn’t named a starter between Luke Fahey and Tavien St. Clair for Saturday’s game against USC at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Ohio State is working through the loss of Julian Sayin, the Heisman Trophy finalist in 2025 who was injured in the right arm during the 19-15 win over Indiana on Oct. 17.
Day has pointed to Jones before when talking about the position battle.
"I shared with them and shared with the team the story of when we won a national championship here with Cardale being the third-string quarterback," Day said in a press conference on Oct. 20.
"So it's been done before. That's a challenge to them, but it's also a challenge to the entire team."
The comparisons to 2014 are easy to see. Barrett’s season was outstanding even with the injury that knocked him out against the Wolverines.
He finished fifth in Heisman Trophy voting and put up 2,834 passing yards, 938 rushing yards and 45 total touchdowns. Jones, a 6-foot-5, 250-pound quarterback, brought a different kind of game, and he said Urban Meyer and offensive coordinator Tom Herman helped shape the offense around what he could do.
"I think it just took the guys around me upping their play," Jones told Eleven Warriors. "I think the talent or the confidence was never an issue for me, personally. My coaches may think differently, but I think just coming into a situation where I felt as comfortable as possible with the talent around me."
Jones also said the biggest adjustment was handling the social side of suddenly being the quarterback at Ohio State. He can laugh now at a famous tweet from his time as the backup, and he said he also picked up lessons by watching Kenny Guiton, who had made three starts in place of Miller in 2013.
Once Jones got on the field in 2014, the Buckeyes’ offense changed. His deep ball gave the passing game a different gear, and that opened things up for Ezekiel Elliott, who piled up 696 rushing yards and eight touchdowns in those three starts.
Jones made the most of the opportunity. Against No.
11 Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game, he threw for 257 yards and three touchdowns in a 59-0 win that pushed Ohio State past No. 5 Baylor and No.
6 TCU in the final CFP rankings.
Then came the Sugar Bowl, where he passed for 243 yards, added 43 rushing yards, scored a touchdown and threw an interception in a 42-35 victory over No. 1 Alabama. He finished the run with 242 passing yards, 38 rushing yards and two total touchdowns in the 42-20 win over Oregon in the national title game.
Jones later won the starting job over Barrett to begin 2015 before Barrett reclaimed it later that season.
This time around, though, the setup looks different. Jones was a redshirt sophomore when he took over in 2014.
Fahey is a true freshman, and St. Clair is a redshirt freshman.
Fahey has gone 9 of 13 for 202 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. St.
Clair is 5 of 9 for 52 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
Ohio State enters Saturday at 6-1 overall and 4-0 in Big Ten play, so a loss to USC would not end the Buckeyes’ season in the 12-team College Football Playoff era. The roster also still has Jeremiah Smith, the Heisman Trophy front-runner who leads the Big Ten with 984 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns, and a defense that ranks fifth in the FBS in scoring defense at 13.4 points per game.
Jones said Day needs to settle on a starter, but he also stressed that the other quarterback has to stay ready. He compared the situation to Oregon’s with Dylan Raiola and Brock Thomas after Dante Moore was injured against USC on Sept. 26.
And while Ohio State has enough talent for one of these quarterbacks to make a Jones-like leap, he said Saturday should decide who stands out.
"I don't view Tavien and Luke as so polar opposites that you need a two-quarterback system," Jones said. "I think both of these guys bring a lot to the offense in the passing game and in the running game."
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