Urban Meyer seems to firmly believe that it’s impossible to have too much of a good thing.
Ohio State hauled in its latest top-flight quarterback recruit on Friday, earning the commitment of Class of 2018 four-star signal-caller Emory Jones, who’s ranked as one of Rivals’ top-100 recruits in the class.
Jones’ commitment is a big deal and a big get, but this is hardly anything new for the Buckeyes, who have landed one highly ranked quarterbacking prospect after another in recent years, meaning Meyer has an overflowing stockpile of quarterbacks on his hands.
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Jones in the Class of 2018 joins a pair of fellow future Buckeye quarterbacks in Tate Martell and Danny Clark. Martell is the top-ranked quarterback in the Class of 2017, and Clark isn’t too far behind. Dwayne Haskins Jr., a five-star commit, comes to Columbus this fall. Last year’s recruiting class featured Torrance Gibson (also a five-star recruit now labeled a quarterback/wide receiver on Ohio State's roster) and Joe Burrow. The year prior brought Stephen Collier, who if not for an offseason ACL tear would be J.T. Barrett’s backup this season.
And don’t forget that Barrett is still just a redshirt junior, allowing him to return for his senior season in 2017.
All in all, it means Meyer is going to have quite the quandary on his hands involving the quarterback situation a few years down the road.
Sound familiar? Meyer didn’t have the best go of things attempting to juggle Barrett and Cardale Jones last season and only avoided a three-way headache when Braxton Miller moved to wide receiver.
Big Ten
Logically, it wouldn’t seem that all of the aforementioned guys would stick with Ohio State, likely opting for a chance at a starting job elsewhere rather than serve as backups for their entire — or even just the majority of their college careers.
But it’s true also that the Buckeyes have relied heavily on backup quarterbacks over the last three seasons. Prior to last season’s indecision at the position, Barrett took over for an injured Miller, and Cardale Jones succeeded Barrett when the latter suffered a season-ending injury in the regular-season finale, leading the Buckeyes to a national championship. And in 2013 — when Miller was the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year — backup Kenny Guiton still managed to pitch 14 touchdown passes in limited time.
Regardless of any future headaches, though, this squarely falls into the "good problem to have" category.