J.T. Barrett saw the safety take two steps toward the line of scrimmage, knew he had single coverage and motioned Dontre Wilson into the backfield for extra protection after shouting a few words of direction to his offensive line.
He took the snap and had all day to throw. K.J. Hill blew past Bowling Green's safety and Barrett fired a rope that the redshirt freshman wide receiver easily turned into six points.
It looked easy, because well, it was.
"He was like 'slow down, slow down, let's do this. Boom,'" right guard Billy Price said. "And we just changed one thing."
That's all it took for Barrett to connect with Hill and put Ohio State's first points of the 2016 season on the scoreboard. Hill's speed — and the rest of the team's overall athleticism — overwhelmed an overmatched Falcons defense all day, but by the end, Barrett had six touchdown passes to his name. He also ran into the end zone once himself, setting a school record with seven touchdowns responsible for in the game.
“He's our No. 1 quarterback. He received all the No. 1 reps. You get timing with receivers. You can see there's some beautiful passes Saturday.”– Urban Meyer on J.T. Barrett
Aside from an early interception, Barrett shredded Bowling Green like a hot knife through butter. It is just one game against a team that didn't have much of a chance to beat the Buckeyes, but Ohio State's quarterback looked better than he did all last season throwing the ball. We've written about what kind of difference it makes for Barrett to know he is the guy at quarterback. Pair that with plenty of snaps with his receivers and first team offense and we saw what kind of success Ohio State can have on Saturday afternoons.
"Whether you're a veteran or not, you need all the reps," Urban Meyer said on Monday.
Barrett looked even-keeled as he always does, even after he threw his second pass of the game right to Falcon linebacker Brandon Harris. He returned it 63 yards for a touchdown to put Bowling Green ahead 6-0, which resulted in an unpleasant conversation in Barrett's helmet as he jogged to the sideline.
"Coach Meyer, he doesn't say nothing to me. The conversation I had with myself, though, is just like, well, darn, J. I didn't use 'darn.' But try and keep it PG in here," Barrett said Monday. "So I was sitting there, I said: Sheesh, J.T., it's a pick-six, but relax, you know what happened. You were just being greedy. So stop being greedy.
"And then I went to everybody and I was, like, it was on me. I apologize. It won't happen again. And then we went on about our day."
The day ended with 776 total yards of offense, another school record. Barrett orchestrated the majority of it, hitting his receivers in stride and running Ohio State's offense with an overarching confidence. He ended his day 21-of-31 passing for a career-high 349 yards. It looked easy for the entire offense but Barrett sat at the head of it all.
On Tuesday's Big Ten teleconference, Meyer said the quarterback changed the offense's play at the line of scrimmage 10 times throughout the course of the game to get his unit in a better position to gain yards and score points. Meyer called Barrett's understanding of Ohio State's offense so comprehensive, it leads to graduate level conversations between the quarterback and coaching staff about changes.
"A lot of times you'll see teams look over to the sideline and get it from the sideline. We've done that for several years but what defenses do nowadays, once you look over to the sideline they change their defense," Meyer said. "So as long as a quarterback is controlling and managing, it's hard for a defense to change what they're doing."
Bowling Green's secondary is not the best in the country by any stretch of the imagination but it is tough to imagine such an aerial assault from Barrett happening last year with Cardale Jones looking over his shoulder. Barrett admitted he overthought things and try to play perfectly for fear of losing the job.
Ohio State yo-yoed its quarterback situation throughout camp, leaving Tim Beck responsible for preparing two quarterbacks because even he didn't know (so he claims) who Meyer planned to start Week 1 at Virginia Tech on Labor Day Night.
Such a discussion never happened this past spring, summer and through training camp. This is without question Barrett's offense and his outstanding day against the Falcons is a direct result of mastering the tiny bits and pieces of it while establishing a strong rapport with the bevy of receivers on Ohio State's roster.
Barrett appeared in complete control against Bowling Green.
"The things I got better at was things I talked about like being able to see the defense, transition what I saw on film on to the field," Barrett said. "Like the first touchdown to K.J., I saw the no-deep look that we practiced on the field and in practice but also saw on film and what the look was going to look like and then checked into the protection and gave the routes, and we scored."
Film preparation makes game day easier for every position but is even more critical for quarterbacks. Beck, Meyer and Ed Warinner put Barrett and the Ohio State offense in a position to be extremely successful Saturday. The game represented a major step forward in the belief that Barrett could return to 2014 form, when he set a Big Ten record with 45 total touchdowns and finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting.
Barrett didn't have Jones pushing him that season either, though Jones did serve as his backup following Braxton Miller's shoulder injury. The 2015 season was different, however — the two guys pushed each other and Barrett didn't earn back the starting job back until mid-October.
"It always comes up when you have two quality players, you make a mistake like that and you're out. The other guy goes in. Some people don't like that," Meyer said. "Obviously, I'd love to have that. I wish I had three of them that were J.T.'s caliber.
"Does that put more pressure on a player? So be it. That's what happens at the next level."
Barrett isn't thinking about the next level right now, only Tulsa's defense, who he is set to face Saturday at 3:30 p.m. If there are any nuances he notices on film, he'll get the first crack at practicing against it in the days leading up to the game. There isn't another quarterback in his way taking reps away from him.
Ohio State hopes the results will be similar to what showed up against Bowling Green: A quick route adjustment here, change of protection there, then boom.
"Him being able to say 'hey let's check this, let's do this and you see a touchdown,'" Price said. "It's part of the maturation process. He's been the driver to the offense."
Added Meyer: "He's our No. 1 quarterback. He received all the No. 1 reps. You get timing with receivers. You can see there's some beautiful passes Saturday."
