Cardale Jones or J.T. Barrett? Complete Guide to Ohio State's Historic QB Battle

COLUMBUS, Ohio — As Ohio State's freshmen took the field for the first official practice of their college careers Monday, a familiar face stood off to the side for the newcomers-only gathering.

Maybe he was finishing up some extra work, or perhaps he just wanted to get a glance at his newest teammates, but regardless of his reason, it would have been hard to imagine Cardale Jones attending a non-mandatory practice—especially one with an 8:35 a.m. start time—a year ago.

Yet there Jones was, wearing a white LeBron James Nike "Witness" T-shirt with Beats by Dre headphones draped around his neck. He certainly looked more like a leader than the career backup he was until the Buckeyes' historic postseason run seven months ago.

Some may want to read into Jones' Monday morning practice appearance, and others will shrug it off as a mere coincidence, a moment that wouldn't have been noticed if the reigning national champions weren't currently being viewed under a microscope. But searching for meaning will become a regular habit here in the coming weeks as both Jones and J.T. Barrett vie to regain their status as Ohio State's starting quarterback.

The Buckeyes took the field for a veterans-only practice Monday afternoon, and an unprecedented quarterback competition more than a year in the making officially began.

But before we take a look at where the Ohio State quarterback battle stands, let's first examine how we got here.

The Difference a Year Makes

When Braxton Miller announced his intention to return to Ohio State for his senior season in early 2014, a quarterback competition appeared to be on the books for the following year. In fact, looking at the Buckeyes' depth chart at the time, Jones and Barrett made for the most likely candidates given the experience each would have obtained by the time the 2015 season rolled around.

But when Miller tore the labrum in his throwing shoulder, ending his senior season before it ever started, all of the Buckeyes' plans for the future—both short and long term—appeared to go out the window.

Originally, it seemed like either Barrett or Jones would serve as a season-long Band-Aid before Miller returned for a fifth year of eligibility in 2015. And even after Barrett lit up Cincinnati for 409 yards of total offense and four passing touchdowns Sept. 27, Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer indicated Miller was still in line to reclaim his starting spot.

Jay LaPrete/Associated Press

"Braxton is our quarterback," Meyer said. "To be fair to Braxton, [the reigning two-time] Big Ten [Offensive] Player of the Year. But it's good to know we've got both of them."

Meyer's tune, however, soon changed.

The Rise of Barrett

After overcoming a loss to Virginia Tech in the second week of the season, Ohio State had managed to reinsert itself in the discussion for the first-ever College Football Playoff by the time November rolled around.

And Barrett was arguably the biggest reason why.

As the Buckeyes headed into East Lansing for a de facto Big Ten East Championship Game against Michigan State on Nov. 8, the redshirt freshman was already on pace for a statistically historic season. (Barrett went on to break Ohio State's single-season total offense record and the Big Ten's total touchdown record. He even become an unlikely Heisman Trophy candidate.)

But while many of Barrett's impressive performances had come against unimpressive competition, his showing against the Spartans only legitimized his breakout campaign.

With 386 yards of total offense and five touchdowns, Barrett led the Buckeyes to a 49-37 road victory that catapulted them from 14th to eighth place in the CFP rankings. He also made Meyer rethink his stance on handing Ohio State's starting QB job back to Miller the following season.

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"Competition brings out the best, and I'm really excited to have two really good quarterbacks next year," Meyer said two days after the win. "That's the plan. I think they're both excellent quarterbacks. Excellent quarterbacks. And we'll worry about that day when it comes."

Over the course of the next three weeks, Barrett strengthened his case to be the Buckeyes' quarterback of the future as he led Ohio State to an 11-1 record heading into the Big Ten title game. But a broken ankle in the regular-season finale against Michigan brought Barrett's debut season to a premature end, leaving both his own future and the team's in doubt.

An Unlikely Hero

Had Miller gone down just a few days earlier, Ohio State's outlook for the 2014 season may have been very different. After all, it was just 48 hours before he suffered his torn labrum that Meyer announced Barrett had jumped Jones as Miller's primary backup on the quarterback depth chart.

Had it been Jones, and not Barrett, who had been thrust into Miller's place, who knows how the Buckeyes' national championship season would have played out? Jones still got his chance, though, as Meyer was, quite frankly, out of options.

Known more for his ill-advised tweets than anything else at the time, Jones headed to Indianapolis as somewhat of an enigma with a potential trip to the College Football Playoff riding on Ohio State's performance against a defensively stout Wisconsin team. The stories of Jones having a cannon for an arm had become the stuff of legend, but he had never displayed it in an actual game.

It didn't take long for that to change.

The 6'5", 250-pounder threw a 39-yard touchdown pass on his first drive as a starting quarterback and earned Big Ten title game MVP honors as he threw for 257 yards and three touchdowns in the Buckeyes' 59-0 beatdown of the Badgers. The game was enough to convince the CFP committee that Ohio State was deserving of its fourth and final spot, launching the Jones-led Buckeyes into a Sugar Bowl semifinal matchup versus No. 1 Alabama.

Had Ohio State lost to the Crimson Tide, Jones' story would have still been remarkable.

It turned out it was just getting started.

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After the Buckeyes fell behind 21-6 in the first half, they came back behind Jones, who piled up 286 yards of total offense in a 42-35 victory. Ohio State went on to beat Oregon in the national title game a week later, with its former third-string signal-caller posting 280 yards of total offense and two touchdowns.

In the matter of just three games, Jones had turned himself from a likely offseason transfer candidate to a potential first-round pick in the upcoming draft. But when he announced his intention to return to Ohio State for his redshirt junior season three days after winning the national championship, it set the wheels in motion for an unprecedented quarterback competition.

Three's a Crowd

With Jones returning to Columbus and Miller shrugging off rumors he would use his ability as a graduate transfer to spend the 2015 season elsewhere, Meyer entered spring practice with an embarrassment of riches. Ohio State possessed the reigning national champion quarterback, the reigning Freshman Performer of the Year and a two-time Big Ten MVP, all at a position where only one player can take the field.

"It is fairly unique," Meyer said. "I've never been in this situation."

Spring practice didn't provide much clarity, as Miller continued to rehab his shoulder and Barrett only participated in a limited role. If there was anything telling about the Buckeyes' 15 spring practice sessions, it was that Jones was unable to grab hold of the starting job with his competition still hobbled.

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But as Ohio State entered the summer with a logjam at quarterback, the Buckeyes' battle soon became a two-man race. His future as a quarterback looking bleak, Miller opted to make the move to wide receiver, announcing his position switch to Sports Illustrated's Pete Thamel with just weeks remaining before the start of fall camp.

"I had been practicing at quarterback for the six months after my surgery," Miller told ESPN's Joey Galloway during an appearance on Monday's SportsCenter. "And the thing that was going through my head was, 'I don't know if I'll be able to play quarterback for the full season.'"

But even with Miller out of the picture—as far as playing quarterback is concerned—Meyer's decision doesn't appear to be much easier.

Where to Now?

Before the Buckeyes' first-team offense took the field for practice Monday afternoon, Meyer already knew how he'd decide who would line up at quarterback. The three-time national champion head coach determined a coin flip would decide whether it was Barrett or Jones who took the first official snaps of fall camp.

Jones called heads and lined up first. The players will rotate, and Meyer said he'd rely on a "gut feeling" when it comes to making his final decision. How he will define that gut feeling remains unclear, but it would seem to differ from the statistics-based approach he originally said he would take.

"I made an error when I spoke last spring about, 'It can't be a gut instinct.' It's got to be both," Meyer said. "How they performed last year, how they performed in the summer—then we're going to chart everything throughout training camp.

"It's going to be the accumulation of all that information, then we'll make a decision."

A statistical approach would seem to favor Barrett, as he posted a higher completion percentage with a larger sample size than Jones did a year ago. Advanced analytical site PredictionMachine.com also projects Ohio State having a slightly better season with Barrett at the helm.

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But that "gut feeling" could ultimately bode well for Jones, especially after an offseason in which he became the unlikely face of not only the Buckeyes program but college football as well. From flirting with UFC star Ronda Rousey to feuding with Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah, Jones has gone viral on a consistent basis, often serving as an unofficial spokesman and ambassador for the Ohio State players.

It also might not hurt that Jones bypassed the NFL draft, and Meyer may feel he owes it to Jones to reinsert the redshirt junior into the starting lineup. And while Barrett has often been lauded for his exceptional leadership, Jones has a way of leading in his own unique way, with Monday morning's appearance at practice showing a commitment to football that he hasn't always been known for.

That probably won't be enough to sway Meyer's gut feeling in Jones' favor, but it can't hurt. It's too early to get a feel for how this quarterback competition will play out, but as the Buckeyes' first practice of fall camp approaches, both Barrett and Jones appear to be on equal footing with the staff.

How long that will be the case remains to be seen. But with Ohio State offering only limited media availability through the remainder of the month, don't expect to know who the starting quarterback for the 2015 season will be anytime soon.

When will we know?

If it's up to Meyer, not until the Buckeyes' first series of the season.

"We won’t announce anything until the first guy takes the field against Virginia Tech," Meyer said on Monday. "That won't happen."

Until then, prepare to find yourself reading into anything and everything.

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten lead writer. You can follow him on Twitter, @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.