BATTLING BACK FROM INJURY, PRESSING TO PLAY PERFECT PREVENTED J.T. BARRETT FROM SEIZING OHIO STATE STARTING QUARTERBACK JOB SOONER
J.T. Barrett was in the process of finishing a long talk with his father, when the elder Barrett said a phrase he'd repeated many times before. Finally, it began to resonate with the Ohio State quarterback who failed to win back his job after enduring a broken ankle.
"My dad would talk to me all the time, 'How about you have fun?'" Barrett said Tuesday.
Barrett lost the Ohio State starting quarterback job to Cardale Jones out of fall camp in August, still recovering from the injury he suffered nine months earlier. It was a bit peculiar at the time, but the normally cool, calm and collected redshirt sophomore admitted he wasn't in a place mentally to recapture the magic that had led him to account for a Big Ten record 45 touchdowns in 2014.
"It was one of those deals, trying to be perfect or trying to make a crazy play and force things instead of being myself and playing relaxed," Barrett said. "I think it did affect me at first, but I learned just to ignore that and it turned out OK."
Barrett eventually fully seized the starting job back from Jones in the Penn State game Oct. 17, even keeping it despite a one-game suspension for a Halloween OVI citation. Two weeks prior to the game with the Nittany Lions, the switch flipped in his head.
"Just got to the point where I was like, 'You know what, I'm not playing very good.' Just being honest with myself," Barrett said. "Cardale was playing pretty good. So it was just like, 'How about you start playing pretty well for yourself?'
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