INDIANAPOLIS — Sitting in front of the assembled media in Ann Arbor one week ago following a knee injury in the Michigan game, Buckeye quarterback J.T. Barrett said he would be playing in the Big Ten Championship Game in seven days.
He didn’t know then, however, that he would be undergoing knee surgery the very next day.
An arthroscopic procedure to repair the meniscus in his right knee put Barrett’s availability in doubt this week.
But not to Barrett.
“On Saturday after we played the team up north, I said I was going to play next week. So if I didn’t, I was kind of going to be a liar. And I wouldn’t lie,” he said following Ohio State’s 27-21 win over Wisconsin to earn the Buckeyes a Big Ten Championship.
Barrett played from the first snap to the last snap. He completed 12-of-26 passes for 211 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He wasn’t perfect. Far from it. He missed a couple of sure-thing touchdown passes to open receivers, he wasn’t nearly as mobile as he has shown in the past, and his touch virtually disappeared in the second half.
But he was out there. Six days after knee surgery.
After the game, Urban Meyer admitted to being skeptical of Barrett’s ability to play in the game, but his faith in his quarterback never wavered.
“It never does,” he said. “I’ve had (Tim) Tebow and this kid’s a lot like him. How you keep him out of a game, I just don’t know how it happens.”
Barrett spent 14-15 hours a day rehabbing with OSU trainer Adam Stewart. The pair were practically inseparable. Quarterbacks coach Ryan Day said there was never a wasted moment when it came to Barrett’s rehab, to the point where the Buckeye QB was rehabbing and working on Wisconsin at the same time.
There were a number of reasons why Barrett fought so hard to play in this game, but the memory of missing out in 2014 still looms large.
“I was saying to myself last time I got us to the party but I wasn’t let in,” he said. “So this time there’s opportunity for me to go play in this game, I was going to do whatever it takes to go out there and play with my brothers knowing that it’s my senior year. This was one of the reasons why I came back, to play in big-time games like this.”
In all of his years as a coach, Meyer can only remember one of his players returning in the span of one week from arthroscopic surgery. Structurally, everything was fine, but Barrett’s ability to handle pain throughout the game was what kept him on the field.
“He’s a pro and he’s tough and he has the heart of a lion,” Day said. “He never had any doubt in his mind that he was going to play in this game. He wanted to play from the beginning. He told everybody he was going to play in the game, and that’s what he did.”
Barrett doesn’t see what he did over the past six days as special, he viewed it as necessary. His team needed him, he needed them, and together they went out and won a Big Ten Championship.
The numbers weren’t great, but the determination was.
“It’s crazy. I’ll tell you, he’s just a resilient guy,” said defensive line coach Larry Johnson. “It’s unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like this. You’d have to drag him off the field tonight because he was not going to not be out on the field.”