Ask J.T. Barrett about throwing the deep ball, and he has an answer.
An answer that he's been saving.
There's not much that needs to be added to what Ohio State's starting quarterback said Wednesday after practice during the Buckeyes' bye week. Here's what I asked, followed by what he said. In all, it took three minutes for Barrett to unburden himself.
"We talked so much about the deep ball when Cardale (Jones) was the starter. We know you can throw it, too. How much do you want that to be part of the offense and how much do you need it to be part of the offense?"
Here he goes, Barrett never angry, but exasperated. Not yelling, sometimes laughing, definitely explaining.
"I mean, that's the thing, it really didn't change with Cardale in the game. And it didn't when I played last year. Last year when I was playing, how many deep balls did I throw to Devin (Smith)? All the deep balls that we had were to Devin and I threw them. But I guess since I'm not 6-5 and 250 that I didn't have a strong arm or something. I don't know what that was about.
(Note: Cardale Jones is 6-5 and 250 pounds. Barrett is 6-2 and 225.)
"Nothing changed when I got hurt. Cardale was throwing the balls to Devin Smith, who was a great deep ball catcher, so it was nothing different. And same thing this year. We didn't have new plays in so Cardale could throw the ball farther down the field.
"It was our base plays and he just worked within it. So nothing's changed. I even forgot about your question. I wanted to say that for a long time, I'm going to be honest with you.
"Because I don't know what that was about. I threw deep balls the whole year and then Cardale's in and it's like, 'He's got a strong arm, he's throwing the deep passes downfield.
"What?! What are you talking about? I threw the same passes.
"The thing is, now when a play breaks down and somebody is 80 yards downfield, am I going to throw it? Absolutely not. Cardale is going to throw it. I'm not going to throw that. So I feel like that's different.
"In our base offense, and throwing the deep ball, that's just part of it, we're going to take shots. We've just got to complete them and that's where we are. So it's not anything different. I might get the ball out earlier being that my arm isn't as strong as his and he might get it out later, he can have an extra hitch or a thing like that, but it's the same thing. It wasn't anything different.
"So like I said, I forgot what you asked me about, so what did you say? My bad."
Who cares what we say? This is Ohio State's starting quarterback, a captain as a sophomore, a laid-back guy who is also
one of the best leaders that the coaches have ever seen, delivering the first rant of his college career.
And it's great. So I asked if this had been aggravating Barrett.
"It wasn't aggravating me. I was just like, 'Man, they're trying to play me.' I say 'they' meaning y'all media, I put you all as a group, I'm not pointing out individuals.
"I was just like, 'That's crazy to me.' If you go back and watch film, it was just like I threw a lot of deep balls. Were some of them underthrown? Absolutely. That was earlier in the year, I got better as the year went on.
"But I was like, 'Man, I got a weenie arm?' Now in the off-season I was all in my head all the time lifting weights because I felt like I couldn't throw the deep ball because y'all was talking about me.
"But I let it go, I let it go, I let it go."
Barrett was asked if his performance against Michigan State last year, including the best throw of the year on the sideline to Smith, made his case.
"I don't know. Maybe it does. I saw third-and-23, and really the play was throw the ball to Devin downfield. And we completed the ball and it was like 40 yards downfield. But it was just like, I don't know, I don't remember it.
"Third and 23."
See. He does remember it. He remembers it all.
Anything else?
"Nah, that was about it. I was holding on to that for a minute as you all can see. But no, it was good. I just wanted to say that."
