Why Ohio State's QB Competition Won't Die

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The final question of Urban Meyer's Monday press conference seemed innocuous enough, a suggestion more likely to gain traction on an Ohio State message board than inside the mind of a three-time national champion head coach.

But when Meyer didn't immediately shut down the idea of using backup quarterback J.T. Barrett as a situational signal-caller in relief of starter Cardale Jones, it raised more than just a few eyebrows in the room.

"That's a good point," Meyer said of the suggestion that Barrett's dual-threat ability could cure the Buckeyes' recent red-zone woes. "We've thought about it. We've had that conversation. At this time we haven't made any decisions on that right now."

And with that, another day of quarterback controversy in Columbus was born.

Not that it wasn't already going to exist anyway, with Jones' performance in the 2015 season thus far having been inconsistent at best. In five games, the redshirt junior has completed 63 of his 106 pass attempts for 867 yards, five touchdowns and five interceptions, and has twice been benched mid-game for Barrett as No. 1 Ohio State has accumulated a 5-0 record.

But while Jones' encore to his national championship run from a season ago has been far from perfect, the 6'5", 250-pounder has shown improvement in the past two weeks, having completed a combined 62.2 percent of his passes for 535 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions in wins of Western Michigan and Indiana.

That's what made Meyer admitting that he's considered increasing Barrett's playing time all the more strange, as it came moments after he defended Jones' 18-for-27, 245-yard, one-touchdown, one-interception showing in the Buckeyes' 34-27 win over the Hoosiers.

"He's getting better," Meyer said of Jones. "He had one of his better days."

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But apparently it may not have been good enough to put an end to the quarterback conundrum that's been brewing in Columbus ever since Barrett and Jones each helped co-op Ohio State's run to last season's College Football Playoff championship. While Meyer has stood steadfast in sticking with Jones as his starter to this point, cries for Barrett can be found from no shortage of Buckeye fans, with tweets from the lunatic fringe of those displeased with Jones' play having gone viral over the weekend.

"It's frustrating on our end, especially when I see tweets being thrown at Cardale. It's not pretty," Ohio State guard Billy Price said of the attacks from fans on Monday. "Fans, you have no idea what's going on, unfortunately."

That's not to say that Meyer would be one to cave to pressure from outside forces—far from it—but the new expectation for Barrett to potentially see increased playing time could make for an interesting atmosphere inside of Ohio Stadium on Saturday. Especially if the struggles of the Ohio State offense in the red zone—which have been one of the primary critiques of Jones' play—persist against a 2-3 Maryland team that ranks 60th in the country in red-zone defense.

Because as opposed to a year ago, when the Buckeyes converted on 85 percent of their opportunities inside of their opponent's 20-yard line, including a 71 percent touchdown rate, red-zone offense has suddenly become a surprising weakness for this year's Ohio State squad. The Buckeyes offense currently ranks 108th in the nation inside of the red zone, with OSU having scored on 75 percent of its opportunities, with just half of its 12 scores inside the opponent's 20 having been touchdowns.

Perhaps more alarming is the fact that the Buckeyes quarterbacks are yet to have thrown a touchdown inside the red zone through the first five games of the 2015 season, with Jones missing on three first-half attempts in the Buckeyes' win over Indiana on Saturday.

"We misfired on three in a row, which is awful," Meyer said. "But if you hit three of those passes you're over 70 percent completion."

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That's where the idea of increased playing time for Barrett comes in, with the idea being that his ability as a more mobile quarterback could help increase Ohio State's options when it comes to playing on a shorter field. With the reigning Big Ten Quarterback of the Year taking the bulk of the Buckeyes' snaps, Ohio State scored on 83.3 percent of its 60 red-zone opportunities in the first 12 games of the 2014 season, 43 (71.7 percent) of which came by way of touchdown.

"J.T. [ran] a lot. And then Cardale, not much at all," Meyer said. "You'd like to have that. The threat of that cleans up defenses for you. That's the extra component that you have in an offense."

Only the numbers don't necessarily back up the idea that more Barrett would mean more red-zone success, as in an admittedly smaller sample size, Jones helped lead the Buckeyes to a 92.8 percent red-zone conversion rate in his three postseason starts last season, including 10 touchdowns on 14 tries (71.4 percent). It also wouldn't be fair to pin all of the OSU offense's shortcomings in the red zone on Jones, who hasn't received much help from a relatively young crop of wide receivers.

"It's not just him, it's just the timing of the wideouts and the quarterbacks," Meyer said. "And I've addressed that."

If that's the case, one would imagine the Buckeyes would benefit from continuity, not the implementation of a situation-based two-quarterback system.

Which makes one wonder why Meyer would even admit to toying with the idea, which would seem to be counterintuitive when it comes to achieving consistency for his starting quarterback.

It used to seem that there were only two men in Columbus capable of bringing Ohio State's quarterback controversy to an end. But five weeks into the season, neither Meyer with his words or Jones with his play have yet to do just that.

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.