COLUMBUS, Ohio -- It probably felt like a scarlet letter for Jamarco Jones.
Training camp was over and Ohio State was already a few games into its 2014 season, yet there he was in practice with that black stripe on his helmet. Most of his classmates already had their stripe removed.
"I asked (the coaches) all the time (why it was still on) just to try and get a feel for what I had to improve on," Jones said.
The black stripe ritual was designed by Urban Meyer as an in-house motivational tactic for his players. The stripe doesn't come off a freshman's helmet until he has proven he's worthy of being a Buckeye.
So the longer it's on, the more stressful it becomes. Everyone in practice sees it. Jones couldn't help but ask the obvious question of himself.
Why?
"It's hard," Jones said.
More than a player's personal pride is at stake because Meyer announces every time a freshman has his stripe removed. In a world where Ohio State invites top-rated prospects into the program every year, it gives fans -- who can't see practice -- a way of tracking which players are acclimating to the program the right way. It's very public.
Maybe it's not fair to gauge how well a player is doing. Inferring can be dangerous. But no, infer away; Meyer wants you to.
Asked how much the public can take away from the timeframe of black stripe removal, Meyer was up front.
"I think you take a lot," Meyer said. "We have all kinds of different ways (of rating players). There's blue, red, gold (categories), too. We don't release that to you guys, what category they're in, but they earn it.
"It really doesn't have a lot to do with playing time and all that. It has to do about just practicing at the tempo, four-to-six, A-to-B. Living our culture, on and off the field and doing those types of things.
"Some guys have their stripes on for quite a while. That's an indicator that they're not quite doing what we asked them to do."
So it's not ideal when a player takes a while to have it removed?
"I guess that's the politically correct way of saying, 'That's not ideal,'" Meyer responded. "That's not good. That's such a kinder way of saying it."
That's why fans latch on to the black stripe stories. It's seems insignificant, a freshman becoming a Buckeye, but every ceremonious removal is huge news to the program's followers. And when stripes are still on or taking longer than it seems it should, questions come.