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Ohio State’s new two-quarterback system starting to pay dividends

By Jeremiah Sharpe

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The two-quarterback system is starting to pay dividends for the Ohio State Buckeyes and Urban Meyer with Cardale Jones and J.T. Barrett thriving vs Maryland.

Last week at this time Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer was discussing an idea of using J.T. Barrett in the redzone to fix the team’s ongoing problems in the red zone this year and let starter Cardale Jones handle everything else.

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Many experts and fans feared this was a reach and would affect the chemistry of the offense. The problem was the offense already was struggling so when Meyer mentioned it as a possibility in last weeks press conference people should have believed him and expected what we saw against Maryland on Saturday.

Meyer called Jones and Barrett into his office to discuss the new plan and both endorsed the plan and are happy with the two-quarterback system they used against Maryland. The success of this new system was evident on Saturday as Jones had his best game of the year, completing 21 of 28 passes for 291 yards and two touchdowns and Barrett ran for three touchdowns on 12 carries.

“Coach Meyer kind of put it on the table just to us, not with the rest of the coaching staff, and he let us think about it for a couple hours, called us back up to the facility and then we were in the room with the offensive staff and him,” Jones said to Austin Ward of ESPN. “We talked about it and he asked our opinions on it, and both of us were completely 100 percent down with the decision that he made.

“It was a great call, and he proved to be right.”

Most coaches would never ask for the input of his players let alone allow them to sit down and make the final decision on such an important question. Meyer is not the average coach though. His ability to keep both guys happy and help the team has Ohio State 6-0 and improving every week on offense.

For Ohio State fans all they can do is hope that this new way of handling a two-quarterback system continues to work.

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