Though he doesn't like to talk about it much, J.T. Barrett will admit it when someone asks about it: He was not too fond of Ohio State when his first training camp as a Buckeye rolled around.
"I remember sitting in my bed, looking up and they come knock on your door at 5 a.m. — 'We got a two-a-day today,'" Barrett recalled at Big Ten Media Days last week. "And I said, 'Man, do I love football?' At the time I told myself, 'Nah not really.'"
Barrett enrolled in January 2013 as part of Meyer's vaunted second recruiting class, one that contained names like current NFL players Ezekiel Elliott, Vonn Bell, Jalin Marshall, Joey Bosa, Eli Apple and Darron Lee. Not all of them graduated high school early but each dealt with that daybreak knock on the door at the team hotel from Mickey Marotti and his strength staff signaling it was time for practice.
That's quite an adjustment for anybody. Ohio State's 2016 recruiting class is set to endure it Sunday.
"I can still remember the days, me and Eli came in together. Graduated high school early, in the dorms, talking about how awful we hated Ohio State," Barrett said. "It's just rough for young guys, especially when you come from a place where in your city, your town, you're the best and then you start back over. Especially the way we do at Ohio State — it's not easy."
“We tell the recruits, if you want to go somewhere easy, then don't come to Ohio State because it's not easy here. It's not changing for you, it didn't change for us.”– J.T. Barrett
Hate is an extremely strong word, especially when it comes from the guy slated to be your team's leader and starting quarterback the season after losing 12 draft picks and a senior class that tallied 50 wins in four seasons.
But any freshman is due to deal with the shock of their first Ohio State training camp. Big time college football programs don't mess around and the Buckeyes are no exception. They push each player to their limit, and sometimes it takes a full season for an individual to get back on his own two feet and be ready to contribute.
"I think last year's class, that was part of the reason a lot of them didn't play. It took longer," Urban Meyer said in Chicago. "Same with the Eli's and Mike Thomas. Not necessarily Darron Lee, because he just didn't have the skillset yet."
Meyer said it is not uncommon for roughly half of each incoming recruiting class to not be able to stand practicing every day during camp. Just four members of the 2015 recruiting class played last season, a direct result of such strong junior and senior groups making up a loaded roster and the young guys not taking the steps they needed to in order to get on special teams.
But with the majority of those players are gone now, Meyer sees things being different with this year's freshmen. They have to be ready.
"What I'm seeing from this group, the '16 group, Jonathon Cooper, Austin Mack — they're going to play. I don't feel that at all with them," Meyer said. "We do the whole blue, red, gold thing with guys as a rite of passage and a bunch of those guys have already moved up into the red group which means they're getting ready to play."
Still, two-a-days in the hot Columbus sun at Coffey Road Park lie on the horizon. Barrett and the upperclassmen know what to expect, but the 24 true freshmen don't.
"We tell the recruits, if you want to go somewhere easy, then don't come to Ohio State because it's not easy here," Barrett said. "It's not changing for you, it didn't change for us."
Coaches yell at everybody, but freshmen need to learn how things are done within the program. Summer workouts go a long way at establishing discipline and getting guys in shape but then throwing practice on top is a different thing entirely.
"That was one of those things, I can still remember our freshman year. I didn't like going to the Woody for practice," Barrett said. "I didn't like practice at all. It just wasn't a fun time.
"It's one of those things, it’s going to be rough at first but I wouldn't have it any other way because I learned so much and it made me a better person, not just a football player. I appreciate Coach (Tom) Herman, Coach Meyer and Coach Mick being rough on me. They still are tough on me but I know it's because they care and they want to get the best out of me."
That is Meyer and his staff's job. Less than a month remains before Ohio State's season opener against Bowling Green Sept. 3. Sunday is the first day they can get their hands on a young roster, comprised of 44 true and redshirt freshmen. It isn't supposed to be easy, and time is of the essence.
"I think Coach Mick said this was the youngest team he’s ever coached," center Pat Elflein said. "Yeah, if we’re going to get to where the expectation of Ohio State is, if we’re going to get there, we’ve got a lot of work to do."
Added Meyer: "You have to embrace the grind. There's plenty of places where I hear the word 'chill,' you'll never hear that at our place. In recruiting, it cracks me up when I hear a recruit say ‘I love it there because it’s really low key.’ You’ll never hear that at our place. I love it because I want to be the best. I want to be a first rounder, I want to win a championship. J.T. is built like that. He's made for this kind of environment."
