Obviously, the feeling was going to be a little bizarre at first.
Braxton Miller, Ohio State's two-time Big Ten Player of the Year, occupied a seat in the Buckeye quarterback room for four long years. For essentially three of them, he was the man atop the depth chart once he took over his freshman season in 2011 until he suffered a second torn labrum in his throwing shoulder last August.
That's a lot of days when Miller's rear end resided in a certain seat within the hallowed walls of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
Those days are no more.
"Do I miss it? It's just weird," Cardale Jones said when asked if he missed Miller's presence in the team's quarterback room. "I'm sitting in his spot now. It's kind of weird. We kind of have assigned spots."
Does Miller still have a spot somewhere in the room?
"No, we tried to leave it blank and then it got awkward so I just sat there," Jones chuckled.
"The main thing is that we want the best for this team. Whether that be myself, Cardale, or Braxton when he was playing, it was who was going to put our position in the best chance to win."– J.T. Barrett
This happens often. Stories are written and told on longtime attendees either in a business office setting or town hall meeting room who eventually move away or do something else. Time plows on, however, as does the business that takes places in those areas. People keep coming, but sort of pay homage by allowing the seat to remain vacant of someone who occupied it for years on end.
With Miller's move to wide receiver this fall for the Buckeyes, his usual spot is no longer available. It's Jones'. Miller is gone, but not forgotten.
"There's always a seat for Braxton in the quarterback room," quarterbacks coach Tim Beck said.
That's a respectful statement for the player who's meant so much to Ohio State, especially once Urban Meyer took over for Luke Fickell prior to the 2012 season.
Beck said "maybe" when asked if Miller would ever take a seat back in the quarterback room during his redshirt senior season at Ohio State, but the chances don't look good at the moment.
"He's full-time. I don't want to say I completely left it up to him, but I just want to see how he pushed and he's a full-time receiver," Meyer said.
Now, the room is operated by Beck, in place of the departed Tom Herman. Jones and J.T. Barrett are duking it out to win the starting job Sept. 7 against Virginia Tech, and Stephen Collier, Joe Burrow and Torrance Gibson (at least until Friday) round out the quarterback depth chart.
"The main thing is that we want the best for this team," Barrett said of the culture within the room. "Whether that be myself, Cardale, or Braxton when he was playing, it was who was going to put our position in the best chance to win."
Barrett and Jones are as close as possible right now in the battle to be starter, Meyer said, but even without Miller and the national microscope shining brightly on them, the goal hasn't changed. They want to win.
"Our goal was never to win a national championship," Jones said. "Our goal was to be nine units strong, to put ourselves in a position to play for championships in November, which is the Big Ten Championship."
"If I can help Cardale see something, even when he was playing (last year), if it was something I saw on film and he may not have saw it, I would be a bad guy if I didn’t help him," Barrett added. "At the end of the day, it would make him better and then it would make our team better if he sees that and delivers the ball or whatever the case may be. That’s our approach to it."
The two are best friends off the field and close with Miller.
"It's all fun and games when we're not on the field, but when we get on the field it's strictly business," Jones said.
That's what makes this so interesting. Even without Miller in the room, Jones and Barrett want what's best for the team, best for themselves and best for each other. That's what Meyer, Herman and now Beck worked to instill in recent years.
"Competition is a beautiful thing. It really keeps them focused, keeps them working hard and the better guy at the end will come out being that guy," Beck said. "Certainly we're going to need the backup, too."
Added Barrett: "Do I want Cardale to have success? Yes. With that, I just want my best play to be better than his best play. I still want him to perform at his best, but the fact is I still want to be the quarterback and be out there. I don’t want to downplay that, but I don’t want him to not succeed. It’s not like a lift to me. I still want him to do well, too."
Sounds like regardless who sits in what seat, the outcome of the quarterback battle won't be cause for any enemies.
