Cardale Jones: Urban Meyer Didn't Guarantee Me Anything

Cardale Jones, fresh off declaring his intention to return to Ohio State for his junior season, appeared on ESPN's Mike and Mike Friday morning to discuss his press conference, who influenced his decision, and the fact that Urban Meyer didn't guarantee him anything for 2015.

On the process leading up to his decision....

The process was a little difficult – not having time to celebrate after the game was over – the decision had to be made within two days. And that's usually a decision that guys have a couple of weeks or three or four weeks to decide. It just wasn't enough time for me to weight out the pros and cons.

Was he at all close to turning pro?

Not really. It was an easy decision because of the limited time I had to weigh out my pro options. The benefit was returning to school more than going pro.

What made him decide to hold a press conference?

Well, for me personally, it wasn't my idea to hold the press conference – all eyes on me with me being the center of attention – I'm not that type of guy, period. That wasn't something I put together. I thought it wasn't a big deal, but Coach Meyer let me know immediately that everything I do now will be a big deal.

On his transformation from the "not here to play school" tweet:

Of course I never really thought it was cool not to play school or not to pay attention or take school seriously. It was just a stupid tweet at the time. I always take my academics seriously, but it wasn't like that tweet made me realize how important school was to my life.

What brought about the transformation from young man to man ready for opportunity?

Just going through a lot of growing pains, the birth of my daughter, Coach Meyer spending more time with me, forcing me to grow up. And just being around my teammates and just understanding my role on the team and how important that was to me. When I first got into Ohio State, I didn't think I was that important.

On what LeBron said to him following the championship...

It was just a brief couple of words. He told me way to do it not just for my school but for the city of Cleveland. We gave Cleveland and the whole state of Ohio something to be proud of and to keep it going.

Any idea what J.T. Barrett and Braxton Miller will do at this point?

Not really. The season just literally ended three or four days ago. When we get to that point later down the road, I'm sure the coaches will know how to handle it. And they'll put our team – not just the players – in the best position.

Did Urban Meyer guarantee you playing time next year?

Coach Meyer just gave me the pros and cons of coming back and the pros and cons of going to the league. He didn't guarantee me anything. He didn't guarantee anyone else anything. He just said that the hardest-working player will get the spot.

On title game thoughts after Oregon took an early 7–0 lead...

We understood what time of team we were playing. And in our opinion, we felt our defense had a better chance of stopping them than their defense had to stop us. No disrespect to the Oregon defense, but that's just the way we felt about our team.