It is now time to start taking J.T. Barrett’s Heisman candidacy seriously.
Up until this past weekend, any serious thoughts about Barrett hoisting college football’s most prestigious trophy weren’t actually all that serious. Yes, the numbers over the prior five games were impressive, but there were still doubters out there.
Those doubters will now have to find a new benchmark.
And after his performance against Penn State on Saturday, he might actually be at the top of the Heisman heap.
This isn’t his first foray into the stiff-arm discussion, however.
Despite only finishing 11.5 games in 2014 as a redshirt freshman, Barrett finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting. He was too far away on total votes to earn an invite, but his performance was impressive enough to earn 19 second-place votes and 40-third-place votes.
He’s on his way to a much better finish this year.
Following his 33-of-39 performance against Penn State, Buckeye head coach Urban Meyer was asked if it was time to put Barrett’s hat into the Heisman ring.
“I think that H word is appropriate after today’s game,” he said.
At this point in 2014, J.T. Barrett had thrown for 1,856 yards with 23 touchdowns and seven interceptions, while rushing for 496 yards and six touchdowns. This season, he is completing a higher percentage of his passes (69.5% compared to 64.7% in 2014) and has thrown for 2,166 yards with 25 touchdowns and one interception. And even though he is running less (22 fewer carries), he has managed 454 yards rushing and five touchdowns.
Barrett is on his way to eclipsing his spectacular 2014 debut, but all he’s worried about is the next game, and he’s certainly not concerned about a trophy. Standing just feet away from Meyer when his coach said Heisman talk would be appropriate, Barrett backed away and instead focused on the real task at hand.
“He said the ‘H word,'” Barrett said when asked about being a Heisman candidate. “I’m going to say the same thing, that ‘H word.’ I don’t really focus on it. Next week we’ve got to go beat Iowa. That’s what I’ll go focus on.”
Ohio State hasn’t had a Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback since Troy Smith in 2006. Smith won the award in one of the biggest landslides ever.
Smith played 13 games that season, and yet in eight games this season, J.T. Barrett is just 126 yards behind Smith’s 2,746 yards of total offense in 2006. Barrett is also just one touchdown behind the 31 total touchdowns that Smith was responsible for that season.
Sure, it was a different offense, a different head coach, and 2006 was saddled with the terrible rule that started the clock on the kickoff, but it’s still a pretty interesting note on how much production Barrett is currently responsible for, as well as the kind of production that quarterbacks were winning trophies with just a decade or so ago.
The numbers that Barrett is putting up right now are also impressive in the present day. He is fifth in the nation in completion percentage, 21st in passing yards, 13th in yards per attempt (8.8), third in touchdowns, first in interceptions thrown (among actual starting quarterbacks), and third in passing efficiency (176.2). His 25:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio is gaudier than costume jewelry.
And for now, Meyer and the Ohio State public relations machine will allow those numbers to do the talking for Barrett’s candidacy. They won’t do any talking about it among themselves and there won’t be any campaigning just yet.
“No. No. We talk about Iowa and their front four and their pressures and all that,” Meyer said on Monday. “That was the conversation we have in the inner sanctum of Woody Hayes. I wouldn’t do that unless somebody asked me a question. Sometimes I do feel an obligation to — I’ve done that before with Tim Tebow — when is the appropriate time to say something, because when is that time? Certainly not right now.
“He had a really good game. In fact, he had one of the best games in college football history, certainly one of the best quarters in college football history. Other than that, let’s go beat Iowa.”
Is J.T. Barrett at the top of the Heisman heap? Maybe, but that heap is notoriously unstable. Players come and go so often it may as well be a Heisman hostel.
If Barrett continues doing what he’s done so far this season, then he’ll get what he wants, which is more wins. Anything after that is just a bonus.