Welcome back Cardale Jones, college football’s 3-game legend

He might’ve started as Ohio State’s third-best quarterback, but over the past month, we’ve learned a lot about how good Jones is and just how entertaining he can be. After tearing up the formidable Wisconsin and Alabama defenses, which rank No. 18 and No. 3 in Football Outsiders’ F/+, he did the same to the Oregon defense, which came into the National Championship ranked No. 9 in the same metric.

The former three-star recruit from Cleveland finished with 242 passing yards on 10.5 yards per attempt against Oregon, and he proved to be a valuable asset for a physical running game that none of the Buckeyes’ last three high-profile opponents have come close to stopping.

His catapult of an arm and tank-like running style proved to be a matchup headache for some of the country’s best defenses. He averaged 9.6 yards per throw in those three games plus the final minutes of the Michigan game, and he averaged 4.1 bruising yards per carry on the year.

He did it with plays like this, using all of his 6’5, 250-pound frame to truck through even defensive tackles:

(GIFs via ESPN.)

Or this, where he rolled out to pick up a huge fourth down on a busted sneak play:

Before becoming a starter, he was doing things like this in spot duty:

Those plays are why Jones is my favorite player in college football, and why he should be yours too.

Well, that’s half the reason. There’s also the fact that he uses his cannon of an arm (he says he can throw a ball 80 yards, and his teammates say he’s not kidding) to live by the best motto in football: “F*** it, I’m going deep.” It seems every play is a big-time throw down the field or a truck stick run.

But really, the best thing about watching Jones is that he just makes football fun. He embraces contact, he chucks it deep, he jokes about his roommate’s mother ...

... he beats up on little kids in video games ...

... he’s gone from the guy who tweets that he didn’t “come here to play school” to the guy who says things like this ...

... yes, he still tweets funny things ...

... and his roommate’s funny, too: