He never would have admitted it at the time, but J.T. Barrett was rattled when Braxton Miller went down with a season-ending shoulder injury 12 days before Ohio State was set to begin in its 2014 campaign.
"Those first couple days, my head was just spinning," Barrett said Wednesday. "Before the Navy game, just laying in my bed with my thoughts, just up.”
After all, it was a ton of pressure for a guy who hadn't taken a snap in a game since midway through his senior year of high school.
But Barrett handled everything that was thrown at him during his redshirt freshman season for the Buckeyes and them some. He threw for 2,834 yards, ran for 938 and was responsible for a Big Ten record 45 touchdowns on his way to being named the Big Ten's Freshman of the Year. He became a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate in the process.
Not bad for a kid who had to replace a preseason Heisman contender in Miller.
But Barrett's season came to a horrific end during last Saturday's 42-28 win against archrival Michigan when he suffered a fractured ankle on the very first play of the fourth quarter.
And all of a sudden, Ohio State's second Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback had been lost for the season just one week before the Buckeyes take on Wisconsin for the Big Ten championship and a potential berth in the first-ever College Football Playoff.
Enter Cardale Jones — the 6-foot-5, 250-pound redshirt sophomore with a "cannon for an arm" as described by head coach Urban Meyer.
It won't be easy for Jones to step in right away and replace Barrett's production. It might even be unreasonable to think that he could. But perhaps the Cleveland native doesn't have to.
“Don’t try to do it all yourself," Barrett said when asked what advice he would give to Jones. "With myself and Cardale, we’ve got people around us we can hand the ball off like I said or throw it around. We don’t have to win the game so just go out there and just play his game."
Jones would probably be wise to listen to Barrett, too. Not just because he's his teammate, but because if there's anyone who knows how to replace a Heisman Trophy candidate, it's Barrett. He's went through this process already.
"Right now, I feel like his world is kind of like how mine was at the beginning of the year so if anybody knows what that feels like I definitely do," Barrett said. "Cardale is a great player. I honestly feel like if I wasn’t starting this year, Cardale would have done the same things that I did this year because Cardale is that talented."
Jones will have an opportunity to showcase that talent Saturday night on the biggest stage against the Badgers, too, and Barrett will be right there with him as he plans to travel to Indianapolis as the Buckeyes try to capture Meyer's first Big Ten title.
“I think it’s a really big deal being that’s what we talk about in the offseason," Barrett said. "That’s why we wake up in the morning and that’s why we come to Ohio State is to win Big Ten championships.”
