COLUMBUS, Ohio — The basics of playing quarterback had effectively already been evaluated, and Ohio State already knew what it had in J.T. Barrett. His arm might not be the strongest, but the Buckeyes have seen him consistently put the football where it needs to be with accuracy and to a variety of targets. He might not be the fastest runner in the country, but the redshirt freshman is certainly athletic and intelligent enough to operate the zone-read attack and pile up yardage. He has proven to have the brains to memorize the playbook, has established a voice that can command a huddle ,and he has the confidence to speak his mind in the locker room. Ohio State largely was able to learn all that about Barrett without all that much adversity, at least relative to what he was facing on the sideline last weekend before a make-or-break drive in overtime against one of the nation’s toughest defenses backed by a white-out student section making it hard to even think. But the meaningful lessons, the truly revealing moments for a player at Barrett’s position, come when the stakes are highest — and that’s when Urban Meyer evaluates a quarterback’s eyes. “I’ll probably never forget that look,” the Ohio State coach said. “The more you’re around him, he’s just a very serious guy who handles his business on and off the field. To see what he did in that game in overtime, in that environment, it just — I had him stand up in front of the team after the game. “To say that I really knew him a year and a half ago, I did not. Now I do.” The Buckeyes are largely still early in the learning process with the redshirt freshman and finding out more about him every week, but the way he handled a hostile environment with the team’s College Football Playoff chances hanging in the balance told them plenty about the makeup of a guy who has already shown he had the physical tools to run Meyer’s high-flying attack. And while Barrett had to deal with a sprained knee during the second half and overtime against the Nittany Lions, there’s already another measuring stick on tap this week for Ohio State as it watches how he deals with and responds to an injury. The Buckeyes planned to limit his role in practice early in the week while he received treatment on his MCL, hoping to get him back to full speed by Wednesday…
Continue Reading: Ohio State learning more about J.T. Barrett
