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After weeks of Ohio State fans calling for Dwayne Haskins to be the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback, J.T. Barrett has silenced all the haters.
“You may have been sleeping on Ohio State since the Buckeyes lost to Oklahoma, and if you have, you’ve missed some epic Barrett performances,” said CBS Sports’ college football analyst Brady Quinn.
Quinn is not wrong.
Barrett has seemed like he has been around in college football for a decade now. In his first season as a starter, the first Guardians of the Galaxy came out and Taylor Swift’s “Shake it off” was the No. 1 song in the country. Since then, Barrett’s career in Columbus has been a roller coaster of a ride.
A broken ankle ended his freshman season ad chances to play in the College Football Playoffs, a quarterback battle between Cardale Jones in 2015, the upset loss to Michigan State that year as well, a hot start to the 2016 season, a flame out to end the 2016 year, and a soul crushing loss to Oklahoma this season.
Ever since that loss to the Sooners, Barrett may have completed the revolution back to the confident, consistent passer he once was before breaking his ankle against the Wolverines.
In the last five games, since the 31-16 loss to Oklahoma, Barrett has thrown for 1,351 yards and 18 touchdowns, bringing his season total to 21 passing scores to just one interception.
Now, it is quite clear that Ohio State’s last five games have not been against quality opponents, and that Barrett struggled against the Sooners, however, it is clear that he has truly progressed.
As mentioned, Barrett’s passing numbers against Army, UNLV, Rutgers, Maryland, and Nebraska, are 99-for-137, 1,351 yards, 18 touchdowns, no interception. That’s a passer rating of 198.5. That would be video game like if he were playing against FCS opponents. Heowever, he was an absurd 27-for-33 for 325 yards and five touchdowns at Nebraska on Saturday. Plus, he added two touchdowns on the ground against the Cornhuskers.
👍🏈WIN COLUMN🏈👍@JT_theQB4th accounted for 7 TDs (5 pass/2 rush), tying the single-game OSU record. #GoBucks
pic.twitter.com/NRGblhAqdq— Ohio State Buckeyes (@OhioStAthletics) October 15, 2017
Among Power Five quarterbacks, Barrett is currently third in passer rating (173.8) behind Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield and Oklahoma State’s Mason Rudolph. Plus, he is leaps and bounds better in that department then some signal callers that are considered a better gunslinger product than Barrett–Washington’s Jake Browing (154.7), UCLA’s Josh Rosen (149.4) ans USC’s Sam Darnold (141.5). And most of them have faced a fairly easy schedule like Barrett.
The Buckeyes have five games left in the season, and it should be viewed as favorites in most of them. If Ohio State can beat Penn State next week, Buckeyes have a bye and the Nittany Lions have Michigan this week, it will be seen as heavy favorites to win the B1G East. Which could make a strong argument that it is the toughest division in all of college football right now.
The offensive line most likely won’t be able to give Barrett the same kind of protection against the quality teams in the last five games of the season, nor will hsi wide receivers be able to make the same athletically dominant plays. However, there is no doubt that new offensive gurus Kevin Wilson and Ryan Day have not only fine-tuned the Barrett’s mechanics, but figured out how to rewire his in-play process as well.
On Friday, The Athletic All-American’s Stewart Mandel stated that Barrett is playing the best ball of his career right now.
“Ohio State is really rounding into form. I think JT Barrett is playing the best ball of his career right now.”@slmandel on @OhioStateFB pic.twitter.com/flUybn3j92
— College Sports Now (@CSNowTweets) October 20, 2017
Although that is subjective, it is hard to dispute how great Barrett has been this year.
Ohio State still has Penn State, Michigan State and Michigan left on its schedule. Those are three games that could allow Barrett to produce his “Heisman moment” this season.
If Barrett continue his level of play, and take command of the offense through the end of the regular season, there is no doubt he could lead the Buckeyes back to the College Football Playoffs. But most importantly, he can punch his ticket to New York City for the Heisman ceremony.