DALLAS — Ohio State knows all about contingency plans.
When it takes the field for the College Football Playoff National Championship Game on Monday night, it will do so with its third-string quarterback Cardale Jones, who already has helped the team defeat Wisconsin to win the Big Ten title and Alabama to get to this game.
But what if Jones were to sustain an injury against Oregon?
Stephen Collier is the fourth quarterback listed on the roster, but he’s redshirting and the coaching staff already has said it has no plans to burn that redshirt even in such an important situation. So that leaves the quarterbacking onus on receiver Jalin Marshall, who played the position in high school and has been the team’s wildcat quarterback all season.
“I did play quarterback in high school, so it was something that I did want to do,” Marshall said. “But preparing for this? It’s kind of overwhelming. So, you kind of got to just maintain your nerves and try to focus on what you’ve got to do. Being the backup quarterback is hard for me because I didn’t play all year, but the coaches have prepared me well as a staff and teammates have faith in me. And I have faith that if I do get put in that situation, we’ll be all right.”
Marshall doesn’t sit in on quarterback meetings, but he has been taking reps in practice and gets plenty of feedback from quarterbacks coach Tom Herman and receivers coach Zach Smith. He said he probably takes 50 snaps per practice and probably throws the ball about 20 times. He’s admittedly rusty and laughs about the fact that he’s thrown two passes this season and both have fallen incomplete. He said after fellow receiver Evan Spencer completed a touchdown pass in the semifinal against Alabama, he was willing to relinquish the backup quarterback position.
“They kind of gave me a hard situation right there,” Marshall said of his two incomplete passes. “One of them was a trick play and the other one, that was my fault, I guess. So yeah, they tease me a lot. Evan went in there, threw one pass and completed it. They say he should be the backup quarterback. And you know what I say? Let him be. I’d rather stay and win where I’m at. But like I said, if Cardale does go down, I’ll be ready.”
While making it to the national championship game with a third-string quarterback is already amazing, winning it with a fourth-string player whose not even listed as a quarterback on the roster would be downright absurd. Still, the team is ready just in case Jones goes down against the Ducks and would rally around Marshall in the same way as it's rallied around the other quarterbacks who have stepped in before him.
“I think it’s definitely challenging at first but he did that in high school and that’s how he made his mark as a football player early on,” Spencer said. “So he knows how to accept that role and how to have to succeed in that role and that’s why he’s in the position he is with the opportunity, God forbid something were to happen, that he would be thrown in there. We all have the most confidence in him. We’ve seen him do things in practice and we know that we’d be all right.
“We all are depending on people when they come into the game, we’re depending on them and they know that. That’s why I think we’ve been so successful because we’ve had people go down and we’ve had people step in knowing that the entire team is depending on them and that’s why they’ve played so great. And I think it would be no different if he was thrown into this situation.”
For more Ohio State news, visit BuckeyeGrove.com.
- - - - - - -
Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday
And don’t forget to keep up with all of Graham’s thoughts, witty comments and college football discussions on Facebook
from Yahoo Sports http://ift.tt/1IlzGWf
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire