Ohio State coach Urban Meyer doesn’t know for sure who his starting quarterback will be in Saturday’s Big Ten Championship Game against Wisconsin, but he’s confident whoever his quarterback is will ultimately be up to the task.
On Sunday’s Big Ten Championship Game coaches’ teleconference, Meyer said he and his staff "won't know for a couple days" whether Barrett will be healthy enough to play this week after suffering a knee injury this past Saturday.
Meyer said he will ultimately make the decision on whether Barrett is healthy enough to start, depending on how the week progresses, but said Barrett and quarterbacks coach Ryan Day will also be in the middle of that conversation. Meyer said "everything seems to be improving," but that the decision will ultimately come down to "what percentage of full speed he’ll be at."
Barrett said after Saturday’s game that he expects to be able to play.
"Yeah, I’ll play next week," Barrett said.
Barrett’s knee became injured before Saturday’s game against Michigan when he was hit in the knee by a camera while warming up on the sideline. While Barrett played through the injury for more than a half, he ultimately had to leave the game due to the injury in the third quarter.
Meyer was livid about the injury after Saturday’s game, when he called out for an "all-out investigation" and said he would find out who was responsible for injuring Barrett. Meyer said Sunday that he would not be personally involved in the investigation, as he needs to devote his time to preparing for Wisconsin, but that Ohio State’s administration was looking into the matter.
"There’s people looking into what happened," Meyer said. "There’s some very good people in our (Big Ten) commissioner’s office and Gene (Smith, Ohio State athletic director), and once again, I don’t have any idea what happened other than what I was told, so I’m sure they’ll handle it and they’ll report back what’s the best thing to move forward."
Meyer did place responsibility on himself, though, for not taking measures before the game to ensure that his players would not be in harm’s way with the amount of people who were on Ohio State’s sideline at Michigan Stadium.
"Everything’s my blame with his program, and that’s something that people who know me and know this program know that I’ll stop practice if I see anything that can harm a player," Meyer said. "This is a tough enough sport to begin with. So I was not aware of all the chaos on our bench and sideline before the game, so yeah, it’s ultimately my responsibility, but I was unaware."
Although Barrett’s knee was injured by a camera on Saturday, his knee wasn't completely healthy going into the day. Meyer said Barrett has had to have treatments for a knee issue over the course of the season, but "nothing quite to the extent that happened Saturday." Meyer said there were never any concerns before Saturday about Barrett being unable to play or needing to limit his running.
If Barrett is unable to play against Wisconsin, Ohio State’s starting quarterback duties would go to Dwayne Haskins, who took over for Barrett on Saturday and led the Buckeyes to a comeback victory. Meyer said Sunday that Haskins "started a little slow" on Saturday, but turned things around when he hit a 27-yard throw between two defenders to his roommate, Austin Mack.
"We had a penalty, a procedure penalty and things didn’t start off perfectly, but then he hit that third-down pass and then his poise and accuracy was outstanding," Meyer said.
Meyer said he is "very pleased" with the development Haskins has made over the past year, which gives him confidence in the redshirt freshman’s ability to play as needed.
"It’s a typical transition of a backup quarterback," Meyer said. "Everybody wants him to play now, but it takes a long time to learn how to play at this level, so I’m very much more confident than a year ago and he’s worked his tail off, and his performance (against Michigan) was just one of maturity and growing up."
Dwayne Haskins (7) looks to the sideline for a play call during Saturday's game against Michigan.
If Haskins plays on Saturday, it won’t be the first time Ohio State has had to turn to a backup quarterback to play in place of Barrett in a Big Ten Championship Game against Wisconsin; that same scenario played out in 2014, after Barrett suffered a season-ending ankle injury the week before against Michigan, when Cardale Jones stepped in and led the Buckeyes to a 59-0 win over the Badgers that earned the Buckeyes a berth in the College Football Playoff and ultimately led to a national championship.
Meyer said Sunday, however, that he would not be making any comparisons to 2014 with Haskins and the rest of his team.
"It feels like 25 years ago," Meyer said in reference to 2014. "This is a different year, different team, different people involved. Certainly that was one of those moments that you’ll never forget, but I think it’s unfair to our players current to say that this is what we expect out of you. This is a whole new group, life happens every year and our focus is on just making sure he’s ready to go, if he’s our quarterback."
While Haskins became firmly established as Ohio State’s backup quarterback for this season after Joe Burrow broke a bone in his throwing hand during preseason camp, Meyer said he remains confident in Burrow, as well, should a situation arise that he is needed to play.
"He had that broken hand right in the middle of the competition, and it’s just hard during training camp to compete for it during the season, it’s impossible to compete for the spot," Meyer said of Burrow. "You have to stay on call, stay ready … You got to stay focused and keep moving and my credit to Joe Burrow is that he has and he’s on call, ready to go."
