Urban Meyer reveals true thoughts on Cardale Jones' 2014 title run: 'No way in hell can he do this'

If you thought Urban Meyer had faith in Cardale Jones at the end of the 2014 season for Ohio State, you’d be wrong! Meyer, of course, has said he had faith in the third string quarterback to beat Michigan and help the Buckeyes go on a run in the first ever College Football Playoff.

But that was a little facetious on his part! Jones subbed in for an injured J.T. Barrett during “The Game,” who in turn started all year after an early injury to original starting QB Braxton Miller.

Jones didn’t completely break the game against Michigan but then all of sudden, turned into a legend. Wins over Wisconsin, Alabama and Oregon followed, Ohio State and Meyer captured a national title and Jones was immortalized in Buckeye lore.

“I want to say it politically correct, but no way in hell could we do that,” Meyer said on The Script, while also speaking to Jones. “But I’ve also credited Cardale to this day. There should be some kind of plaque statue or something for what he did. I mean, it was unprecedented, and I know the Buckeyes went on a great run a couple years ago, but that was in my mind one of the greatest runs in college football history.

“When your leader goes down and Cardale jumps in, but his transformation from who, and I always say this because I think it’s really important, Cardale has always been great, he just was not real focused … When you’re a coach for 40 years, that’s normal, you know, that you have to kind of jump on people’s ass all the time and make sure they’re focused, and Cardale, I hate to say it, is not much different.”

Cardale Jones proved Urban Meyer wrong en route to national championship

Jones had to simply manage the game against Michigan, but it was the Big Ten Championship and two CFP games that stood out. Jones became a completely different QB as he threw for 860 yards, seven touchdowns, two picks, a 60.9% completion percentage, 296 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown over the course of three starts.

“The problem was he went from the third string quarterback to the man pulling the trigger in, you know, against Alabama and Oregon, and obviously Wisconsin too,” Meyer said. “So I did see that, and the famous story I tell is this: that J.T. Barrett goes down, and Mickey Moradi, our strength coach, gives me the signal, which means he broke his leg. I was like, ‘Oh God,’ you know, first of all, I love this kid, he’s down, and then all of a sudden reality sets in. ‘12 Gauge.’ I don’t think he was ‘12 Gauge’ yet. It was Cardale Jones. (He) was my starting quarterback. It’s probably five degrees in that damn stadium. I look at Cardale, he won’t look me in the eye, and he’s staring out at the field after he takes a couple snaps, and he is sweating his ass off. He’s sweating like you know that kid that’s getting ready to take a physics test, and no idea he never studied physics. 

“I wasn’t sure if he taped his ankles, because I remember we had an issue about that. Cardale is such a big dude, I grab him by the shirt and I said, ‘Okay, here’s the play, you can do this, Cardale,’ and give him the play, and I kept yelling at him real loud, ‘you can do this Cardale, you can do this,; and I hit him on the tail, on the butt. He kind of jogs out there. I’m thinking ‘there’s no way in hell he can do this.’ And he really didn’t do it in that game. We had a strip sack for a touchdown. Zeke brought up, broke a fourth and one, and we got out of that with a win. But the next three were legendary. I mean, this transformation from Cardale Jones, the third string quarterback, to the national champ was phenomenal.”