Twitter Reactions: Once And Future King

By Johnny Ginter on October 25, 2015 at 8:30 am
Twitter Reactions: Rutgers
41 Comments

“The destiny of Man is to unite, not to divide. If you keep on dividing you end up as a collection of monkeys throwing nuts at each other out of separate trees.”

J.T. Barrett is back. This is undeniable fact; his presence of the football field Saturday may not have been a revelation in terms of stats (although his were great in general), but there was a palpable sense of accomplishment and purpose that just wasn't present when Cardale Jones was under center. Count me as part of the camp that places a lot of the reason behind that on changes in personnel, especially after he lost his deep threat safety net that goes by the name Devin Smith. Smith, who accounted for 269 of Cardale's 755 passing yards in that magical three game stretch last season, probably made Cardale look a little more polished than he really was. That, and winning a got dang natty, might've set our expectations way too high for a guy who had been buried on the depth chart before a Lemony Snicket-esque series of unfortunate events.

Also, 2015 Cardale had to somehow replace our memories of how generally amazing J.T. Barrett was last year. It was an uphill battle that Cardale was going to lose unless he was consistently excellent from the word go, and while ol' Dolo wasn't really bad overall, Urban's choice to go with Barrett was made a lot easier as he managed to convert red zone possessions into points nearly 100% of the time this year.

It'd be foolish for us to fall into the trap of being Team Cardale or Team Barrett, which is kind of an obvious and easy thing to point out now that J.T. played like gangbusters against Rutgers, but should he come out of the off week rusty and unprepared, it's probably important to make sure that the only stat that actually matters is that big W in the left hand part of the column. I may not be able to make rhyme nor reason of a good 70% of Urban's coaching moves this season, but I feel like he's earned more than a little leeway from Ohio State fans.

All I know is, "undefeated" is a pretty cool sounding word, and a pretty thorough ass-kicking of Rutgers is enough to calm any football-related fears I might have. At least for a few weeks.

One last thing about Barrett. Until about 12 hours ago, the 2015 Ohio State football team didn't look like they had much of an identity. Cardale winged it around a little bit, Zeke ran into piles until it worked, and Braxton lined up in the wildcat and did exactly what everyone in the universe knew he would (namely, run around in the backfield before either scoring a touchdown or taking a 5 yard TFL). Now, with Barrett, we know what Ohio State is: a rushing team that throws the ball when they feel that it's necessary.

Not that J.T. can't drop bombs from time to time, but his vision, he brilliance with the read-option, and his speed(?) all open up the running game in ways that Cardale just can't. Barrett had over 100 yards of rushing, and he got it in the same way that he did last season. Without a consistent deep threat and excellent perimeter blocking, J.T. becomes the obvious choice for the team, because his skillset lends itself toward an identity that Ohio State already has in spades. Except...

I mean, this was really, really, really kickass, right? Barrett might've missed on some sure touchdowns, but the brilliance of Braxton Miller and Mike Thomas can make a quarterback's job a lot easier.

Also when walk-on Kato Mitchell gets the chance to blow up a defender on a block, a la Evan Spencer, well... it was a pretty good night.

The other thing that I wanted to talk about was how players reacted to this win. On Twitter, most players say the right things about thanking their teammates, giving love to the fans, and retweeting anyone who has ever said their name, even in passing. This is usually boring and crappy. It's hard enough trying to get a straight answer out of college football players in general, and it's even worse with steely-eyed Ohio State trained interview automatons. For example:

But then they get on Twitter and post fun stuff like this:

It's a weird line to straddle, because the college viewing football public view you as a celebrity with an opportunity that they'd kill to have, but also an opportunity that often demands that those same players follow a very narrow code of conduct and self-expression.

Well screw that. I want more pics and tweets like those.

Ultimately, I have to agree with Beanie and Chimdi here. This was the first game where Ohio State put together a gameplan, executed it, and looked good doing it. If the Buckeyes can keep this kind of cohesion through the month of November, they will be a very scary team by the end of the season.

Boom, baby.

41 Comments

Arizona Cardinals Draft Marvin Harrison Jr. with No. 4 Overall Pick, Making Him Ohio State’s Highest-Drafted Wide Receiver Ever

Marvin Harrison Jr.

Former Ohio State Center Felix Okpara Commits to Tennessee

Felix Okpara
View 41 Comments