MAXWELL AWARD NAMES J.T. BARRETT NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Thursday, the Maxwell Award named the Ohio State quarterback the National Player of the Week. This is the second time he won the award.
Add it to the growing list of weekly honors amassed by the Texan over his career. From Ohio State:
- Maxwell Award Player of the Week – twice
- Davey O’Brien National Quarterback of the Week – once
- Big Ten Pffensive Player of the Week – six times
- Big Ten Freshman of the Week – seven times
- Athlon’s national Player of the Week – twice
- Athlon’s Freshman of the Week – twice
- Earl Campbell Tyler Rose National Player of the Week – twice
Entire article:
http://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-...-names-jt-barrett-national-player-of-the-week
This post comprises a heck of a punctuation mark on the "What's wrong with JT" conversation. Not that he can't play better than he has. This just provides an outsider's perspective, which isn't a bad thing sometimes.
They've had better arms behind center... recently
They've had better athletes behind center... recently
For a numbers dork like me it's frustrating, but it's the truth: The most important criterion for a quarterback is not quantifiable. The older JT (first name: Jim) called it toughness. Urban calls it competitiveness. I won't be so bold as to offer my own opinion in their company, but as they use different words, I'll hazard a guess as to what they mean. It seems to me that they have both chosen a component of a larger, impossible-to-define quality and use the name of that component to signify the whole. It's a quality that all winners, especially all winning quarterbacks, have. Yes, toughness and competitiveness are part of it, but so are leadership, tenacity, confidence, and a dozen or more things that are all inextricable parts of it.
It is a mistake in my mind to try to separate these adjectives, as if they were independent of one another. In some people they might be, but in a winning quarterback they are each a facet of a gem that is best appreciated as a whole.
Precise use of language is part of my job. In doing this job for 25+ years I've found that precise language is best for objective, quantifiable features, functions and attributes. When something defies quantification and most especially when it is evaluated subjectively, attempts to quantify it objectively are time-consuming mistakes. Many system specifications spend most of their words on the unquantifiable. The best specs use the fewest words on such things. The less quantifiable, the more subjective, the more important it is to use imprecise, concise language.
This is why the best possible term for the attribute in question is the word that is most commonly used for it. The word: "IT"
Rex Kern had IT
Craig Krenzel had IT
Troy Smith had IT
JT Barrett has IT, arguably to a higher degree than any of the above.
JT will own the QB record book before he leaves. And yes, that will in some small way quantify the extent to which he has IT. But those of us who saw him play will tell people that what really made him great is not found in numbers.
Hopefully a fair few Heisman voters understand that as well.