Cardale Jones sent a great tweet after leading Ohio State to an upset win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl on Thursday.
The tweet was very simple and included just a photo, brief text and emoji:
3rd String pic.twitter.com/fxdFbFSJeR
— Cardale Jones (@CJ12_) January 2, 2015
Yup, Cardale is not your average third-string quarterback. The beastly redshirt sophomore went 18-of-35 for 243 yards, a touchdown and an interception while running 43 yards in a 42-35 win. Though the numbers don’t jump off the page, they certainly are impressive when you consider that this was just Jones’ second career start, and it was against one of the best defenses in the country.
Jones, who has been criticized for having a poor work ethic during his career, also said he plans to prepare for Oregon right away:
Go ready to get back to Columbus and prepare like none other
— Cardale Jones (@CJ12_) January 2, 2015
Jones’ success is as much a testament to his ability as it is to Urban Meyer’s strength as a coach. Meyer seems to make everyone who quarterbacks his teams look good. Jones also was a highly-rated recruit coming out of high school. He just happened to be in the same high school class as Braxton Miller and was dying to go to Ohio State, which is why we haven’t seen much of him. At another school, he probably would be a star. Heck, he had offers from several other great schools, but he preferred to battle Miller in Columbus. And then J.T. Barrett came along and beat him out in the fall. What can we say? Ohio State is deep at QB. That’s why we believe one of them — probably Miller — will transfer after the season.
