MINNEAPOLIS — After beating Minnesota and reveling in an a cappella rendition of Carmen Ohio with those fans brave/insane enough to venture to brutally cold Minneapolis, Ohio State’s players and coaches hurried into the locker room to thaw out.
With a balmy temperature of 15 degrees at kickoff, this was the program’s coldest game since 1964. And the snow, which started to blanket the sky midway through the first half, didn’t make matters much better. It was head coach Urban Meyer’s first trip to the Twin Cities:
“I don’t want to see this one on the schedule for a while, certainly not in November.”
Because despite statistically dominating the Golden Gophers in a 31-24 triumph Saturday afternoon, it seemed like a contest that was closer than it ever should have been.
“A great team win. Once again, I didn’t say great execution all the time, but really in that kind of environment, not bad," Meyer said.
The Buckeyes were hampered by three turnovers that kept Minnesota in the contest until the end. In particular, redshirt freshman Jalin Marshall, who had 112 yards on six touches, struggled in his newfound return man duties with Dontre Wilson out.
"We're going to hug him up, hug him up. He's a young guy, but he's still our teammate, we love him," senior cornerback Doran Grant said. "Obviously he can do a lot of things for us. We got him. He's going to be good, he's going to be fine."
Meyer maintained his confidence in Marshall, who otherwise played a large part in the team's offensive success.
"We don’t yank guys. Now, if I go back and study the film and there’s a loose ball, that kind of thing, we’ll get an opportunity to try to fix it, and then eventually they won’t play. But you’re right, think about that, to go on the road with those turnovers and still win, I’m not saying the score would have been out of hand, but he’s going in to score and he gives it up on the 7-yard line or whatever it was. He’s too good a player, we have to get that fixed.”
After all, with the College Football Playoff selection committee watching its every move this was a chance for Ohio State to secure a dominating win over another top ranked opponent.
Toppling Michigan State vaulted the Buckeyes firmly into the national picture and into an ever-changing conversation of who's the best of the best this season.
Obliterating the Gophers was a chance to further entrench themselves as one of the country's hottest teams.
And with multiples junctures to turn Saturday into a rout, they couldn't. When every play, every series and every game matters in what's become a beauty contest, Ohio State might have missed a critical opportunity for style points. Perhaps it sent mixed signals to the committee judging it.
Or, according to Meyer, the Buckeyes made the best of horrible conditions in a game that resembled the middle of January.
“I’d like to see anybody in the country come up here and do this, come up here in November on Nov. 15. I challenge any team in the country that wants to go ahead and schedule this one in November against a very good team. Have at it. That’s our message.”
Surely Ohio State did little to nothing to hurt itself against Minnesota. It dropped 489 yards and held the Gophers to 303 yards (most of which came in the fourth quarter when the game was largely never in serious doubt).
On offense, redshirt freshman J.T. Barrett combined for 389 yards and four touchdowns en route to a record-setting day in unideal conditions.
He now has more touchdowns in a single season than any other player in school history. An 86-yard dash to the end zone was the longest run by a Buckeye quarterback. He's one throw away from matching Troy Smith's record for 30 touchdown passes in a season.
But Barrett said his mind remains on one thing:
"Win games. Bottom line. I mean, I didn’t know I was close today, glad it happened. But my mindset is all the time is to win games and all the individual accolades come second to me so it wasn’t something I was focused on."
Still, who could've predicted this. Like, seriously, raise your hand if you thought Barrett would be having this kind of year after star quarterback Braxton Miller.
"I think you can tell the kind of trust we have in him ... We have a lot of confidence in him. Like I said, early in the season, we had no idea who he was. I had no idea this is what J.T. Barrett is. I have a very clear picture of who he is now," Meyer said.
And what that picture will show is a quarterback who can hurt you through the air or on the ground. He's no Miller in form, but you could argue he's equally, if not more, effective, in function.
"I feel like I have a good ability to run but I definitely don’t have crazy, breakaway speed like Braxton," Barrett said.
The coaching staff likes to tease him about it.
"Think about that for a minute. J.T. Barrett took one 86 yards. Pretty good for a guy that runs a 5.5 40," Meyer said.
Added offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tom Herman:
"I like to make fun of him about a lot of things. He's really good-natured, he's a kid that doesn't take anything personal, he's got very thick skin when it comes to being coached really hard and when it's time to be serious and being coached really hard. And then the light-hearted ribbing, takes it in stride and then every now and then he dishes one back that's pretty good, too."
Yet Barrett's uncanny ability to inflict serious damage when he tucks and runs might be his most underrated attribute.
"Yeah I think they did a little bit, you know what I’m saying. All season, workouts, I’m normally in front but that’s more conditioning and things like that. But when they talk about me running a 4.8, I’m like, man, don’t play me like that."
On this day, it carried Ohio State to its ninth win of the season. After the game, Meyer said the mood in the locker room was "outstanding."
"Like we’re one game away from winning the East championship, that’s what it’s like. I think they want to get the heck out of here, that’s what they want to do."
If Ohio State can beat unranked Indiana at home next weekend, it'll clinch a spot in the Big Ten Championship Game. In and of itself, that would appear to be a pretty big accomplishment for a team that looked like it teetered on disaster after a loss to Virginia Tech early in the season.
It's crazy how much things change, isn't it?
