Armour: Ohio State's Cardale Jones learned off field

NEW ORLEANS -- It's easy – understandable, really – to think Cardale Jones will fare about as well as a tackling dummy in the Sugar Bowl.

He's Ohio State's backup backup quarterback, having thrown all of 36 passes in two seasons. His second start will be in college football's inaugural playoff, with a shot at the national championship game on the line. And he'll be facing arguably the nation's nastiest defense, a snarling, shifty Alabama unit that has a way of turning turf into quicksand.

Simple stats, however, aren't enough to tell Jones' story.

"I don't think there will be a moment in this game, or any future games, that he's not prepared for," Ohio State offensive coordinator Tom Herman said Sunday.

There was a time not long ago when few would have imagined that, let alone believed it.

Jones is physically gifted, as dangerous with his legs as he is his arm. He's smart, too, his grades good enough to earn him Ohio State Scholar-Athlete honors.

But maturity, well, that was a different story.

"That was actually one of the reasons I went to military school (out of high school). We see that didn't do too much," Jones said, chuckling. "It's good to look back on it and see where I'm at now."

While Braxton Miller and J.T. Barrett did everything Herman and Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer asked, on and off the field, Jones was an ongoing challenge. There was that now-infamous Tweet his first quarter in Columbus, when Jones asked, "Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain't come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS". He considered schedules more like recommendations, and his natural goofiness could be as infuriating as it was endearing.

Despite all that, Herman never doubted Jones would be where he is today. When Meyer at one point questioned whether Jones could ever be the leader Ohio State needed him to be, Herman didn't hesitate.

"I looked him right in the eye and said yes," Herman recalled. "I said, `We'll get there. We'll get there. He needs a little more seasoning than some, but we'll get there.'"

The antics gradually stopped, and so, too, the headaches Jones once caused.

"He started growing up," Herman said. "Acting like a man and taking care of his business and doing the things he was told to do and doing them on time and doing them right and doing them 100 percent and giving great effort.

"Acting like a real dude."

The biggest test came after training camp. With Miller recovering from off-season shoulder surgery, Jones and Barrett, a freshman, shared the No. 1 reps. But when Miller re-injured his shoulder in August, Barrett was named the starting quarterback.

Instead of sulking – or transferring – Jones prepared each week as if he were the starter, doing everything he could to help Barrett and his teammates.

"I always felt deep in my heart that I was going to have my chance," Jones said. "Unfortunately it had to happen through two injuries."

As devastating as Miller's injury was –one of the country's top quarterbacks, he was a pre-season favorite for the Heisman – the timing of Barrett's was even worse. Ohio State needed a convincing win against Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship to have any shot at the playoffs, and Jones would be coming in cold.

"Of course," he said, when asked if the situation were daunting. "Because it's like, `Next man up.' But when am I going to be up?"

But the rough road Jones took to the starting job wound up serving him well. He threw for three touchdowns in Ohio State's 59-0 rout of Wisconsin that elevated the Buckeyes to the fourth and final playoff spot, and his teammates say he now oozes the confidence of a four-year starter.

"He has every quality in a quarterback that you need and want," receiver Evan Spencer said. "And in some areas, he well exceeds what you need and want."

No, Jones hasn't played as much as other quarterbacks in his position. But that doesn't mean he lacks for experience.