Ohio State, home of college football's best team and QB competition

George Schroeder | USA TODAY Sports

COLUMBUS, Ohio — They weren't entirely sure what the halftime skills competition would entail. But Cardale Jones was sure he knew how it would go.

"It doesn't matter what it is," he said. "I'm gonna kick their —"

J.T. Barrett interrupted, shaking his head. "His confidence," Barrett said, "is how he hides his fear."

They both laughed. And as two-thirds of the most intriguing quarterback race of the college football offseason sat down together Friday for lunch in the Ohio State players' lounge at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, the conversation was frictionless, and at times even frivolous. But don't misunderstand.

"We always compete anyway," Barrett said.

Only Jones was healthy enough for full participation during spring practice. As a national record of 99,391 watched the Buckeyes' annual spring game Saturday afternoon at Ohio Stadium – presumably, this figure included Barrett and Braxton Miller — Jones threw for 304 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Although Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer called the performance uneven, the coach wasn't including that halftime contest, when Jones beat Barrett and former Heisman winner Troy Smith by heaving a pass measured at 74 yards.

"My arm was kind of tired," he explained. And of the actual performance, Jones added: "It was fun. Hopefully it will carry over to the fall."

The competition definitely will. And if it's an odd situation — three championship-level quarterbacks with impressive résumés, and no manual, Meyer says, for figuring this thing out — it's also the definition of a very nice problem.

The defending national champions will be the consensus No. 1 in preseason rankings. Like several other potential contenders, the Buckeyes face uncertainty at quarterback — but their situation is much different than, say, what's faced by Alabama or Auburn or Florida State or Oregon.

Miller, Barrett or Jones? The right answer might be D: Any of the above.

"It's almost embarrassing how good we are at the quarterback position, the guys that we have," senior linebacker Joshua Perry says. "Because any one of them could be starters anywhere, and be really successful."

Only one will be the starter at Ohio State — but there's plenty of evidence that regardless, the Buckeyes will be really successful.

Miller, a senior who's still rehabbing his throwing shoulder reinjured last preseason, was the Big Ten's offensive player of the year in 2012 and 2013. Barrett, a redshirt sophomore, became a Heisman finalist as Miller's replacement. And after Barrett suffered a broken left ankle against Michigan on Nov. 29, Jones propelled the Buckeyes through Wisconsin, Alabama and Oregon to the national championship.

"The whole situation is nothing but all good," Meyer said. "They're all very good, they're all very invested, they're all good people. The negative is, two guys are gonna have to watch. That's negative — that's excruciating."

But that's also for August, which Jones said will be: "Hot! Hot!"

Then the fourth-year junior laughed, which is his default response. And if it wasn't completely clear if he was referring to the competition or the late summer temperatures, it was true enough, either way. However the battle turns out, the Buckeyes should be really good.

"We've got a potent mix of guys, man," said Smith, the former standout. "It feels good to be a Buckeye right now."

***

That's true well beyond quarterback. Here's something to think about: 2015 was supposed to be the season Meyer's Buckeyes would arrive, when the fruit of a couple of super recruiting classes would be ready to blossom. But they overcame the loss of Miller during preseason, overcame a discouraging home loss to Virginia Tech in early September — and then blitzed through those last three games to win the first College Football Playoff.

The bulk of the nucleus returns. On paper, the Buckeyes might be better than they were in 2014. But the situation is much different.

"We know what we have," Perry said. "At the same time, you've got a target, too. People are gunning for us."

There's also human nature to battle. Although the Buckeyes would like to move forward, the reminders of last season — and the chances for complacency to creep into the program — are never-ending; on Monday, for example, they're scheduled to visit the White House. But Meyer, who won two national championships at Florida, has been there and done that.

"He knows where to go at the White House," said Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen, Meyer's former assistant who spoke Friday at the Buckeyes' annual coaching clinic. "He knows where the bathrooms are."

It's why the Buckeyes have swapped slogans, replacing "The Chase" with "The Grind." Meyer came up with the first one while watching Alabama "dismantle" Notre Dame in the 2013 BCS championship game and recognizing how far the Buckeyes — who had just gone undefeated — had to go to reach the Crimson Tide's level. Two years later they arrived, beating Alabama 42-35 in a Sugar Bowl playoff semifinal.

After beating Oregon to win the national championship, Meyer and strength coach Mickey Marotti came up with "The Grind." Given what the Buckeyes have just accomplished, the concept should not be hard to teach.

"We're clear to our players," Meyer says, "that 'the Grind' is not theory anymore. It's testimony. So embrace it."

His quarterbacks — or at least Jones and Barrett, when they talk publicly about it — appear to have embraced their race. At lunch Friday, they occasionally traded playful jabs, but said all the right things.

"We just take it for what it is," Barrett said, and Jones added: "We keep it real." And though neither wanted to contemplate the end of the competition, Barrett noted that regardless of who wins the job, they know "anything can happen."

"That's what you've got to think about if you're a guy who's a backup, because you never know," he said. "Did I think Braxton was gonna reinjure his shoulder? Of course not."

***

What Miller thinks is anyone's guess. The senior, who earned a communications degree last December, could leave Ohio State and would be immediately eligible elsewhere through the NCAA's graduate transfer exception. Although there's been plenty of speculation, so far he's given no indication he'd leave.

Through a spokesman, he declined an interview request. He made a cameo appearance Friday during Ohio State's coaching clinic, wandering through the Buckeyes' indoor practice facility with an ice pack on his right shoulder. And Saturday afternoon, he participated in a 50-yard sprint contest with other Buckeyes at halftime, finishing second to running back Ezekiel Elliott.

For most of the day, the stage belonged to Jones, who might have the most sheer talent and upside ("The sky's the limit for him," offensive coordinator Ed Warinner said). Most important, he might have finally begun to resemble Miller and Barrett in other essential departments like leadership and maturity. He cited the example of former Buckeye Kenny Guiton, who filled in when Miller was injured during the 2012 and '13 seasons, but then returned quietly to the bench.

"The way he went about his business is really one of the main reasons why I changed a lot of my ways," Jones said. "Just to see how he carried himself on and off the field when he knew he wasn't a starter. … Braxton came back and you really almost never heard of 'KG' again."

Added Barrett: "That just wasn't a conversation back then, who was gonna start. Everybody just assumed Braxton."

It's the only conversation now. And no one should assume anything.

Meyer has pegged the middle of preseason training camp as a target date to choose a starter. Saturday afternoon, he said he would devise a system to chart "everything everybody does."

"This can't be, 'Well, I'm going with him because it's my gut feeling,' " Meyer said. "Those gut feelings — it's got to be statistical analysis and data (to) back up who is going to play quarterback."

The closest thing to statistical analysis on Saturday was the halftime skills challenge. Barrett and Jones had been talking trash since the day before, when Jones said it would be "a little warmup for me," and Barrett predicted: "You'll lose."

After the two quarterbacks and Smith spent 30 seconds throwing at various stationary targets, Barrett was announced as the leader. But then came one long toss from each. Barrett threw it 64 yards. Smith went for 68. And Jones uncorked his heave and was proclaimed the winner — though Barrett disputed the claim.

"It was fun," Barrett said, but he couldn't resist adding another reminder that the competition is a long way from over:

"Know," he said, "that I'm more accurate than both of them."

PHOTOS: OHIO STATE'S QB COMPETITION