J.T. Barrett doesn't even want to think about the alternative. Nothing positive could come from accidentally dropping the ball to celebrate before he or another one of his teammates cross the goal line when they then would go see Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer.
“I just couldn't tell you how awful that might be,” Barrett said on Wednesday after practice at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
“if anybody got away from that and dropped the ball before they crossed the end zone and the other team recovered it, I can only imagine what that day will be like for that man — or the rest of the year, with Coach Meyer.”– J.T. Barrett
Oklahoma's Joe Mixon let the ball slip through his hand at the 2-yard line as he started celebrating what ended up being a 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in Ohio State's 45-24 victory over the Sooners last Saturday. The play should have been blown dead but officials — and Ohio State team personnel — didn't catch it and the score stood.
Clemson’s Ray-Ray McCloud and California’s Vic Enwere joined Mixon in celebrating their breakaway scores early last weekend and dropping the ball before they entered the end zone. Each instance had a different outcome based on if the officials caught it or not. Current Washington Redskin wide receiver Desean Jackson did it at the U.S. Army All-American Game as a high schooler and then in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles.
It's a bonehead play and one that is easily avoided. Which is why Barrett said he doesn't even want to think about what would happen if he or one of his teammates did it in a game. The Buckeyes have specific guidelines for when they score touchdowns.
“The rules are: You score, you hand the ball to the official, and you go hug a big guy. Those are the rules,” Barrett said. “So if anybody got away from that and dropped the ball before the crossed they end zone and the other team recovered it, I can only imagine what that day will be like for that man — or the rest of the year, with Coach Meyer.”
Barrett is responsible for 13 touchdowns through three games in Ohio State's 2016 season, 10 passing and three rushing. Curtis Samuel leads the offense with 519 all-purpose yards and has four touchdowns so far this year, most of breakaway variety.
Two of the most prominent players in Ohio State's offense echoed one another when asked about the recent ball-dropping snafus in football.
“We don’t really talk about it, but I can say we always make sure we keep the ball high and tight,” Samuel said. “That’s Coach Meyer’s main thing and after you score, give the ball to the official and go hug a big guy.”
This season, Samuel even tried to lift Billy Price and Pat Elflein off the ground after he made a visit to the end zone. No one on Ohio State's team has yet to make the silly mistake of dropping the ball before scoring a touchdown and Barrett hopes it stays that way.
The brain fart by Mixon fell in line with a couple other mental errors the Sooners had against the Buckeyes in Norman last weekend. Baker Mayfield threw two interceptions, plus we can't forget about backup quarterback Austin Kendall's "basic" comments on Ohio State's defense. Though Buckeye defenders claim it didn't motivate them, their postgame actions said otherwise.
Barrett joked there is a reason freshman Dwayne Haskins (who he calls Ross) hasn't met reporters yet during the season.
“Because who knows what he would say?” Barrett said, adding he felt Kendall was just expressing himself but in the same breadth of lunacy as dropping the ball before crossing the goal line.
“Did it get the defense fired up? Obviously, they still talk about it, but as a team, we just want to go out there and play our best,” Barrett said. “As far as the two going hand-in-hand? I don't know. That's a rough day. A bad day at the office.”
