David Cutcliffe likes the Ducks in tonight's national championship game.
After redshirt junior safety Jeremy Cash—who played his freshman season at Ohio State—announced he would remain in Durham for his final year of NCAA eligibility at a Thursday press conference, Cutcliffe took the podium to address Cash's decision and other topics. It didn't take long for the head coach to bring up Monday night's championship game, the first under the new, four-team College Football Playoff system.
"I have been so impressed with [Oregon quarterback] Marcus Mariota. I don't know if I've ever seen a player statistically accomplish what he's accomplished with touchdown passes-to-interception ratio," Cutcliffe said. "The other wise thing I'd tell you is the team that makes the fewest mistakes will win the game. With that said, I think Oregon has a real good shot at winning this football game, because I think they will be led by a quarterback who doesn't just say that—he lives it by how he performs."
That's not to say that Cutcliffe thinks the No. 2 Ducks will run away from the No. 4 Buckeyes Monday at AT&T Stadium. He lauded Ohio State's physicality up front, noting that the push that Urban Meyer's team gets up front on both sides of the ball ranks among the best in football.
Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones will be making just the third start of his career Monday after beginning the season third on the depth chart behind Braxton Miller and J.T. Barrett. In his previous two outings—victories against Wisconsin the Big Ten championship game and top-seeded Alabama in the Allstate Sugar Bowl—Jones has completed 30-of-52 passes for an even 500 yards and four touchdowns against just one interception.
"Obviously that young man's gifted," Cutcliffe said. "Another way to look at it is Ohio State has won with three quarterbacks, so what does it tell you about the other guys on the squad?"
Third-seeded Florida State, the ACC conference champion, didn't heed Cutcliffe's warning about turnovers in its semifinal matchup with Oregon, coughing up the ball five times as the Ducks buried the Seminoles, 59-20. Mariota has only been intercepted three times all season, meaning Jones must likely play mistake-free football to avoid the same fate as Jameis Winston and Florida State.
The College Football Playoff is here to stay, but Cutcliffe doesn't want to see it get any bigger, even though teams like Texas Christian—which obliterated Ole Miss in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl after dropping out of the top four in the final rankings—will always have a beef.
"I was a fan our previous system [the BCS], thought it worked extremely well," Cutcliffe said. "You can't go to eight, then to 12, then 16, or whatever number it is. You're at a point right now where I think this should be the maximum of what college football players have to deal with.... It's been great so far that the regular season hasn't been affected, I think that's a critical part of it. We have the best regular season in all of sports in my opinion, college football, and I certainly want to continue with that."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.