Cardale Jones explains lofty expectations placed on Ohio State players, coaches

Cardale Jones has long been a beloved figure in the minds of Ohio State fans since he guided the Buckeyes to the 2014 College Football Playoff national championship as a backup quarterback.

It’s that experience, and his whirlwind rise to prominence in Columbus, that makes Jones the perfect person to properly evaluate what Kirk Herbstreit called “the lunactic fringe” segment of the Ohio State fanbase.

Herbstreit, a Buckeyes alum and vocal member of ESPN’s College GameDay roster, recently defended his comments directed at a small minority of fans that have been overtly criticial of both him and Ohio State head coach Ryan Day.

During a segment on The Triple Option podcast with former OSU coach Urban Meyer and Rob Stone, Jones defended the Buckeyes fanbase as “passionate,” but acknowledged the inherent pressure that comes with leading the perennial national championship-contending Ohio State program.

“I’d call them more passionate, and I think Ohio State has put itself into a position traditionally, and Coach Meyer can attest to this, that the expectation is like no other around college football,” Jones said Sunday. “I would argue being the head coach at Ohio State, and then the quarterback, are probably the second- and third-most powerful positions in the whole state behind the governor when it comes to just notoriety and the effect you can have on other people with your performance.”

Stone tried to stump Jones by asking him to name the Ohio governor, but Jones was up on his state politics and correctly named Mike DeWine.

Cardale Jones: Ohio State fans have been ‘spoiled with great coaches and great players’

Jones then pointed to Ohio State’s “tradition rich-history” and the elevated expectations that come with winning national championships for why some Buckeyes fans might be dissatisfied with Day.

“But, if Ohio State can pull this thing off in the next 2 ½-3 weeks, it may be Governor Day,” Jones joked. “When you look at that, I think it’s all just based off the tradition-rich history we have here of not just winning, of togetherness and the expectations are extremely high here. And I think Ryan and his whole team is kind of got the backend of that because they were replacing – like we say all the time, you don’t want to be the guy replacing the guy. So, when you’re replacing (Urban Meyer) who won a national championship and went 7-0 against the team from up North (Michigan), and all those things, people expect you to pick up that sword and keep fighting.

“People expect you to have no drop-off in performance. You look at the quarterback transition, and I remember when the Buckeyes fans were calling for CJ Stroud’s job after his first game vs. Minnesota, and this guy goes on to be a Top 2 pick and that’s the same for Justin (Fields) and Dwayne (Haskins),” Jones continued.

“We’ve been spoiled with great coaches and great players where we want to see a 59-0 game every game and we know that’s not the reality of college sports because you have a lot of great teams in college football and we’re all fighting for the same thing.”