Former Ohio State Star Cardale Jones Lands High School Coaching Job
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Former Ohio State and NFL quarterback Cardale Jones has put playing football in his rearview mirror. As the 2026 football season gets underway, the former national champion is moving on to a new career as a coach.
On Tuesday, Staples High School in Connecticut announced that Jones has been hired as the varsity football team’s quarterbacks coach.
“Staples Football would like to welcome Coach Cardale Jones to the Coaching Staff as the QB Coach. Coach Jones led Ohio State to a National Championship as starting QB, before playing four seasons in the NFL. Coach Jones currently works for CBS Sports. GO WRECKERS!! #cthsfb” the team announced on X.
“We ain’t come to play school”
Fans that saw the news quickly went to X and ribbed Jones for his infamous 2012 tweet where he declared that going to classes was pointless when the goal is playing football.
“Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL. We ain’t come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS.”
As you can imagine, plenty of people had fun with that quote now that he’s working for a high school, where the class are most decidedly not “pointless.”
“At long last, he’s finally come to play school,” one user joked on X.
“He didn’t go there to do school,” joked another.
“WOW…Staples ain’t come to play SCHOOL,” wrote a third.
In 2013, after serving as the backup to J.T. Barrett for most of the season, Jones was thrust into the starting job when Barrett got hurt in their season finale against Michigan. But the team barely noticed Barrett was gone due to how well Jones played, dominating against Wisconsin, Alabama and finally Oregon to lead Ohio State to their first national title in over a decade and the third of head coach Urban Meyer’s career.
Jones went 8-0 as a starter the following year but was benched for Barrett midseason. He entered the NFL in the 2016 NFL Draft and was taken in the fourth round by the Buffalo Bills.
He wound up playing in only one NFL game – spot duty in a 2016 blowout loss to the New York Jets – and bounced around the league and a bunch of semi-pro leagues over the next few years.
This story was originally published by The Spun on Sep 1, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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