How disappointing was J.T. Barrett's 2016 season? It momentarily cost him a career record.
J.T. Barrett won the Big Ten's quarterback of the year award as well as the Chicago Tribune's Silver Football. It was still a disappointing season.
Fans may not know that Barrett started the season holding onto an all-time record at Ohio State. No other quarterback over the course of his career had a better completion percentage than J.T. Barrett had in his first two seasons (64.2%). He conceded that record back to Todd Boeckman (63.43%). His current completion percentage (62.97%) is just .29 percentage points above third-place Troy Smith.
| Player | Comp. % | Comp-Att | Yards | TD-INT | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Todd Boeckman | 63.43% | 255-402 | 3,085 | 31-16 | 2005-08 |
| J.T. Barrett | 62.97% | 529-840 | 6,381 | 69-21 | 2014-- |
| Troy Smith | 62.68% | 420-670 | 5,720 | 54-13 | 2003-06 |
| Cardale Jones | 61.85% | 167-270 | 2,323 | 15-7 | 2012-15 |
| Braxton Miller | 59.37% | 396-667 | 5,295 | 52-17 | 2011-15 |
Barrett's momentary forfeiture of this record says more about how he ended the season than how he started it. He started this season on a torrid pace that would have only distanced himself from Todd Boeckman.
His first four games featured completion percentages above Todd Boeckman's 63.43% career completion percentage. He threw for a record-tying six touchdowns on a 67.74% completion percentage rate against Bowling Green. He completed 63.63% of his passes against Tulsa even though the yardage for the game fell below his season average.
He was on fire his next two games against arguably the best team on the schedule (at Oklahoma) and the worst team on the schedule (Rutgers). He completed 70% of his passes for four touchdowns against Oklahoma and had a season-best 72.41% completion percentage rate against Rutgers.
Four games into his redshirt-junior season, Barrett's career completion percentage rate stood at 65%. It's as high as it would get for the remainder of the season.
Ohio State beat Indiana by 21 points but Barrett's grisly performance that game was a canary in the coal mine for how he would finish the year. He completed 42.85% of his 21 passes that game for just 93 yards. Only the 2014 Virginia Tech game featured a lower QB rating among Barrett's career starts to that point. However, even the Indiana game would not be the worst performance of his Barrett's season.
| Game | Comp-Att | Yards | TD-INT | Updated Career Comp. % (Comp-Att) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bowling Green | 21-31 | 349 | 6-1 | 64.43% (317-492) |
| Tulsa | 14-22 | 149 | 0-0 | 64.39% (331-514) |
| @ Oklahoma | 14-20 | 152 | 4-0 | 64.60% (345-534) |
| Rutgers | 21-29 | 238 | 4-1 | 65% (366-563) |
| Indiana | 9-21 | 93 | 1-1 | 64.21% (375-584) |
| @ Wisconsin | 17-29 | 226 | 1-1 | 63.9% (392-613) |
| @ Penn State | 28-43 | 245 | 1-0 | 64.02% (420-656) |
| Northwestern | 21-32 | 223 | 0-0 | 64.09% (441-688) |
| Nebraska | 26-38 | 290 | 4-0 | 64.32% (467-726) |
| @ Maryland | 18-27 | 253 | 2-0 | 64.41% (485-753) |
| @ Michigan State | 10-22 | 86 | 1-0 | 63.87% (495-775) |
| Michigan | 15-32 | 124 | 0-1 | 63.19% (510-807) |
| Clemson | 19-33 | 127 | 0-2 | 62.97% (529-840) |
His completion percentage in the next game (at Wisconsin) was just 58.62% though Barrett effectively rebounded after the Indiana game. He completed 65.11% of his 43 passes at Penn State, even though the Buckeyes lost. He followed that with completion percentages above 65% against Northwestern, Nebraska, and at Maryland. Entering the final road game of the season, Barrett's career completion percentage rate stood above what he had entering 2016.
The game at Michigan State started a brutal three-game stretch for Barrett. He completed just 10 of his 22 passes for 86 yards amid unfavorable weather conditions. This dropped Barrett below the completion percentage he had entering the season, but he still placed above Boeckman. The Michigan game dropped him below Todd Boeckman. His completion percentage in that contest (46.87%) dropped him to 63.19% for his career. This conceded the career completion percentage rate back to Boeckman.
Barrett's game against Clemson was not necessarily worse than the Michigan game. He threw for more yards, had a higher completion percentage, and QB rating for the contest. However, the 57.57% completion percentage falls below what he needed to keep his name in first place in the record books.
Barrett will enter his senior season still on pace to break more Ohio State records. He will still likely be the best quarterback in program history. However, he'll need a better season than the one he just had to secure this record again. Assuming he throws 350 passes in 2017 (i.e. roughly between what he did in 2014 and 2016), he'll need to complete 226 of them (64.57%) to surpass Todd Boeckman again.
Put another way, Barrett will need to revisit the success he had as a freshman for his senior season to cement his status as the best passer in Ohio State history.
