OSU redshirt senior quarterback J.T. Barrett (16) scans the field after a snap during the 2017 Spring Game at Ohio Stadium on April 15, 2017. Credit: Mason Swires | Former Assistant Photo Editor

Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett made it look easy during his redshirt freshman season in 2014. Throwing for 2,834 yards, rushing for another 938 yards and accumulating 45 total touchdowns, Barrett cruised to Big Ten Player of the Year and national freshman of the year after stepping in for injured preseason Heisman Trophy favorite Braxton Miller.

Who could’ve seen that coming?

Who would’ve thought after the 2014 season that heading into his final season at Ohio State, some would question Barrett’s ability to lead the Buckeye offense back to prominence?

Barrett and the offense were unexpectedly underwhelming in 2016 with check-down after check-down and an inability to move the sticks for an extended period of time.

So, here the Buckeyes are. They need Barrett’s best for a championship run in 2017, and with a new offensive coaching staff, Barrett said the speed of the offense under co-offensive coordinators Kevin Wilson and Ryan Day are getting to the level it was when now-Texas coach Tom Herman was offensive coordinator in 2014.

“I think at times we got away from (our tempo) and that’s part of who we are,” Barrett said after the Buckeyes’ first practice on July 27. “The program or organizations (Wilson and Day have) been at, they’ve also been a part of that (tempo). So they’re just going to enhance that.”

Perhaps it was unfair to expect Barrett to replicate his 2014 production last season. After all, he had an entirely new and unproven receiving corps, two freshmen starters on the offensive line, a freshman running back and no Herman at offensive coordinator or in the quarterback room.

Now entering his redshirt senior season, Barrett and the offense gain Wilson’s experience with prolific offenses at Oklahoma, Northwestern and most recently Indiana, and Day’s track record in the NFL coaching quarterbacks under offensive tempo guru Chip Kelly with the San Francisco 49ers, making the two more than qualified to revitalize the Ohio State offense to the form it was when the Buckeyes won a national title.

But Barrett dispelled any thoughts that he has regressed as a quarterback.

“I honestly believe that as far as mentally, and even in my game physically, I am better than what I was (in 2014) and things have changed since then,” he said. “So now I’m just trying to keep on enhancing … I don’t want to say, ‘Let’s go back and I’m going to play like I was like my redshirt freshman year,’ because there were times where things were spinning and I was just going hard and I really didn’t get deep into what the defense was doing on the field.”

Barrett said he kept it simple in 2014. If the passing option wasn’t there, he would check it down or tuck the ball and run. He said timing was an issue in 2016 with his feet being in position to throw the ball when the receiver wasn’t in the correct spot for the ball to be delivered. That’s when Barrett said he resorted to checking down to former H-back Curtis Samuel or now-redshirt sophomore running back Mike Weber.

“I didn’t wait for things to get open,” Barrett said. “But now, being able to understand defenses, I would at times wait on things. So trying to get back to that because there’s a blend of when to hold for something to get open and then when to just forget about it. It’s not there, check down or whatever.”

By measurables, Barrett wasn’t poor in any sense of the word. He won 2016 Big Ten Quarterback of the Year and was named first-team All-Big Ten with 2,555 passing yards, 849 rushing yards and 24 passing and nine rushing touchdowns.

However, his completion percentage, rushing yards per attempt, sack rate and yards per completion were all worse than his 2014 numbers. And after all, Ohio State’s success isn’t measured by individual achievements.
It’s difficult to see the additions to the offensive coaching staff not paying dividends, but there’s still some inexperience at receiver.

That’s why Barrett took the summer to practice on his timing with the receivers he’s most familiar with — redshirt juniors Parris Campbell and Terry McLaurin — which might be the key adjustment for Barrett to reproduce or magnify his first-year production.

Ohio State coach Urban Meyer trusts Barrett’s instincts, he always has. That’s what made Barrett a freshman phenom. He could go through four progressions in a possession. The tempo that Wilson and Day bring to Columbus, Meyer suggested, will force Barrett to make quick decisions and be progression-oriented.

“You try to give him as much nonsense in practice,” Meyer said Monday. “That’s what happens. Kevin Wilson and Ryan Day like to go really fast and he’s going to have a lot of that.”