COLUMBUS, Ohio – Nearly every successful college football player has that moment where the game slows down and the chaos of the college game normalizes and the player can really start to grow personally as a player. Not everyone has that 'coming of age' moment early in their career and some highly rated players never have that moment as a career full of promise goes unrealized.
Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett had that 'coming of age' moment during his first year as Ohio State's starter at Penn State in 2014. Before that the Ohio State quarterback was 5-1 as a starter, had gone off for 20 touchdowns against five interceptions and had thrown for more than 1,600 yards and had run for just shy of 400 yards.
Many people would expect that Barrett's moment had already happened with the early success. But it was not until the Buckeyes went to Penn State in late October of 2014 that Barrett and the Buckeyes really faced the adversity of a tight league game, in front of a hostile crowd and Ohio State's No. 12 ranking being very much in doubt.
Yes, the Buckeyes had already lost a game earlier in the year at home against Virginia Tech. But the Buckeyes never led in that game, Barrett's second career start.
The Penn State game was different with the Buckeyes getting off to a 17-0 lead before the Nittany Lions came back and forced the game to double overtime before Barrett and the Buckeyes were able to close the deal after two overtime scores by the Ohio State signal caller.
Couple that with the fact that Barrett dealt with a hurt knee during the game and it was a gut check moment for the team, with head coach Urban Meyer even thinking that the Buckeyes may have put themselves in too deep of a hole.
"At Penn State, the story was told," Meyer said. "In that kind of environment, our quarterback was not playing well. We had a pick six, I believe, in that game, and he also had a second degree MCL sprain, and here we go. We're going to go play overtime down in front of their end zone, and we're seven points behind."
Penn State outscored the Buckeyes 24-7 in the final 30 minutes of regulation and actually had a chance to win with less than a minute to go before settling for a 31-yard field goal from Sam Ficken to drive the Buckeyes to overtime. Penn State would score first in overtime with a one-yard score by Bill Belton and the Buckeyes were facing a do-or-die situation.
"So the script was written. I just remember thinking what am I going to say to this team afterwards? It crossed my mind," Meyer said. "And (Barrett) kind of just took it on his shoulders. I get to see things that all fans do not get to see. I get to see him about six inches from my face and see the intensity and the focus and the human spirit that is as good as I've ever been around."
Fast forward to last weekend and the Buckeyes were in a similar position. Ohio State was down 10 points, on two separate occasions, in a venue that rivals Penn State's Beaver Stadium in terms of being a nearly impossible place for a road team to play, let alone try and come back from a two-score deficit.
Enter J.T. Barrett once again.
The Buckeyes score on three of four actual possessions in the half, only seeing their first one come up short after a Barrett interception (the Buckeyes also let time expire at the end of the game to force overtime). Ohio State's two second half touchdowns were scored by way of Barrett's legs and Ohio State's eventual game winner was delivered by Barrett's Arm as he found Noah Brown during the overtime period in the corner of the end zone.
It is hard not to see many similarities to the 2014 game. A young team, getting a heavy dose of adversity on the road finding a way to win in overtime.
We all know what happened with that 2014 team. It may be a little too early to make those comparisons but there were a lot of players in Saturday night's game who grew up a little as the Buckeyes moved to 6-0 on the year.
"You're talking about an elite performance against -- that defense at Penn State that year was excellent too," Meyer said. "The team we just faced -- I don't remember the ranking for Wisconsin. I remember looking at it before the game started. They played LSU, Michigan State, our rivals, and they played -- and still they ranked that highly in defense after those kinds of teams are playing."
Barrett remembers the 2014 game quite well. He remembers the impact that it had on the team and of course the hope is that the 2016 team responds in kind with six more regular season games to go.
"I think it was one of the things with a little adversity, I think you can say that at the time it was my (coming of) age and see how far I could go." Barrett said. "My knee was hurting but understanding that I did not want to come out of the game, I knew that I could still play and be able to make plays. It was one of the things that you just have to fight through it mentally and luckily with God's help, I was able to do that. I would say that I did grow up in that aspect but as a team as a whole grew up a lot."
