Try to imagine the Ohio State football program without J.T. Barrett the last three seasons.
OK, we know he didn't fully regain the starting quarterback position from Cardale Jones until last October but try to think about the Buckeyes not even having the option to run him out there at quarterback.
Barrett served as an integral part to Ohio State's jaunt to the 2014 Big Ten Championship before an injury, stepping in for Braxton Miller, who the Buckeyes lost before the season even started. You know the ins and outs of that story.
On Saturday, Barrett set another school record. With a 16-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Baugh, he became the school's all-time leader in touchdown passes for a career with 58. Barrett added another later in Ohio State's 58-0 rout of Rutgers, his 21st career start.
Fifty-nine touchdown passes in 21 starts. Barrett has another year of eligibility at his disposal if he wants it and could do some serious damage to the Ohio State record book before it's all said and done. Chris outlined that here.
The thing is, he almost didn't have the chance to do that.
“Tom Herman and Trent Dilfer were responsible for us signing that kid,” Urban Meyer said on Saturday after his team's victory. “It was my first year. I said I need to see you throw. For some reason, that didn't happen. And we started losing commitments at quarterback right away.
“And Tom said I think we should take this guy. I said what's his name again? He said, J.T. Barrett. I said OK. I called Trent Dilfer from the Elite 11. He went to him. He sold me on him. We took him. He's the first quarterback I've ever signed that I never saw throw. Think about that.”
Meyer and the Buckeyes were after a pair of Ohioans, Malik Zaire and Mitch Trubisky, among others, to add at quarterback in their 2013 recruiting class. Zaire committed to Notre Dame and Trubisky to North Carolina early in the process, which left Ohio State short on some options. Eventually, however, Herman got Barrett to leave Texas for Ohio State, the lone signal caller in a vaunted class that included Joey Bosa, Vonn Bell, Darron Lee, Eli Apple and Ezekiel Elliott. All pillars to Ohio State's run at the 2014 national title.
Meyer trusted Barrett would make good on Herman's promise. It's been paying off ever since.
“I think, my redshirt year in 2013 if you told me I'd be here talking about a record I broke for touchdown passes, I might have called you a liar because it was just one of those things it was really hard at that time.”– J.T. Barrett
“We had two people see him throw, but I did not see him throw. I guess I should do that more often,” Meyer joked.
When Barrett arrived on campus in January 2013, an early enrollee rehabbing an ACL injury, he worked his way back and then threw in front of Meyer for the first time a few months later. Shortly after he put together yet another classic Barrett statistical performance on Saturday—21-of-29 passing, 238 yards, four touchdowns, five carries for 46 yards—he recalled the first moment he screwed up in front of his now head coach.
“First spring ball I threw a corner route—this is a great story—it's just like routes on air and I throw a corner route. I throw like 5 yards in front of the guy. It was awful. Awful pass,” Barrett said. “[Meyer] was like, 'Who brought in this guy?' I'm not going to say exactly what he said, but he said 'who brought this guy here because he can't play quarterback here.'
“Then a couple games later, couple spring balls later, I'm here but he wasn't really hyped about me by any means.”
Meyer is hyped now. He always says Ohio State's quarterback must be a Heisman Trophy candidate and reiterated that again on Saturday about Barrett, who now has 17 total touchdowns against only two interceptions in four games this season. A perfect orchestrator to Meyer's power-spread offense, Barrett and backup Joe Burrow—who entered in the third quarter—completed passes to 12 different receivers on Saturday.
As meticulous and obsessive an offensive mind you'll find at any level of football, Meyer and Barrett share the same line of thinking. Ed Warinner said this past Wednesday Barrett stayed as late as the offensive coordinator to study tape of Rutgers—a team the Buckeyes were going to overwhelm regardless who played quarterback.
“Nobody works harder than J.T.,” Warinner said.
There is a reason Ohio State is rolling right now. The depth of talent Meyer brought to Columbus is staggering but inexperience loomed everywhere except a few positions, one of them the most important in the game.
“J.T. talks, everybody listens,” wide receiver Terry McLaurin said. “He didn’t like our demeanor before the game, but he came at us and I feel like that’s what got us off to a pretty good start.”
Barrett came a long way from first a knee injury as a senior in high school, to breaking his ankle against Michigan in 2014. It all stems from that poorly thrown corner route.
“I think, my redshirt year in 2013 if you told me I'd be here talking about a record I broke for touchdown passes, I might have called you a liar because it was just one of those things it was really hard at that time,” Barrett said. “But just staying the course and keeping the faith that everything was going to work out.”
Barrett is by no means infallible. He found himself in trouble last Halloween, arrested and cited for OVI on his team's off weekend. After serving a one-game suspension, he's been all business since. A two-time captain, Barrett became the first sophomore in program history to be voted as such by his teammates ahead of the 2015 season.
Barrett is responsible for a ton of records and other firsts at Ohio State too. And it would not have happened if Meyer did not trust Herman, who went to see the quarterback throw at Rider High School in Wichita Falls, Texas, four years ago. He could ill afford to miss on his first quarterback recruit as Ohio State's head coach.
This season, Barrett appears in control more than ever before.
Safe to say he didn't, thanks to Herman, Dilfer and Barrett's high school coach Jim Garfield.
“That was a leap of faith. But the Trent Dilfer thing, when he saw him in the competitive situation in that Elite 11, that's what kind of sold me on that,” Meyer said. “And then Tom got to see him throw in the spring.”
Added Barrett, who said he tries to take parts of the game from great NFL quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees to mold his game: “I think here at Ohio State we do a great job developing, not just on the field but also in the classroom. I feel like mentally as a man too. I was just telling you guys after the game that it's just a great thing that you can stay the course and know it's going to be hard. But if you stay the course and believe in what Coach Meyer and the staff and Coach Mick are trying to do for you, it's going to benefit you in the end.”
Barrett is the poster child for that, and it nearly didn't happen.
