Cardale Jones stormed on the college football scene late last season, taking the reins of Ohio State's offense from an injured J.T. Barrett and leading his team to the three biggest victories in the Urban Meyer era.
Jones deserves plenty of credit for the terrific job he did of staying poised and stepping in nearly flawlessly in place of Barrett against Wisconsin, Alabama and Oregon, but there's a reason his backfield mate Ezekiel Elliott earned Most Valuable Player honors in the title game and Sugar Bowl.
Elliott and Ohio State's offensive line — benefitting from Jones' cannon of a right arm and the threat to stretch the defense down the field — transformed into an unstoppable force on the ground during the 2014 postseason.
"It's getting there. I would say my wrist, the bone actually is 100 percent but just the flexibility in the wrist is not all the way there. I don't even know if it will ever all the way be there."– Ezekiel Elliott
"I think last year, by the end of the year, we all got so much better," Elliott said Monday following his team's first day of fall camp. "We just developed every week and that’s why we were so good."
Elliott tallied 696 yards and eight touchdowns against the Badgers, Crimson Tide and Ducks. He simply couldn't be stopped and provided Ohio State and Jones a perfect compliment to the passing game.
The scary thing? The running back thinks he can be even better in 2015, mainly because he played all last year with essentially one hand.
"This year, coming back off the injury, I just think I can finally develop my left hand and get the use of my left hand back in my game," Elliott said.
The preseason Heisman Trophy favorite broke his wrist a second time during last year's training camp. He could only carry the ball in his right hand all season as a result, before undergoing surgery following the title game. It was the second time he'd broken the bone in his wrist, but the running back tweeted in May he'd been fully cleared for football activity.
Monday, Elliott practiced with the team for the first time since the Buckeyes won the national championship and provided an update to where his wrist sits with less than a month left before the season opener at Virginia Tech.
"It's getting there. I would say my wrist, the bone actually is 100 percent but just the flexibility in the wrist is not all the way there," Elliott said. "I don't even know if it will ever all the way be there."
Elliott is confident even if the flexibility that was present prior to the injury never returns, it won't affect his play on the field. Besides, he's finally been able to do something that he couldn't all of last season.
"I wasn’t able to bench press last year, I wasn’t able to have any weight on my wrist," Elliott said. "I didn’t start benching actually until, I want to say, July of this year."
That's barely a month ago, when Elliott said he "had to start from scratch."
"I started benching like 95 pounds," he added. "I've gotten a lot of my strength back but it's just a time thing, that's where the flexibility comes in just bending the wrist. It's just going to come in time."
But he has confidence back in it to be even better this year.
"Just getting the use of my left hand (to improve) just in my blocking, ball carrying." Elliott said.
