Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett won conference Player of the Week honors in first game as starter.
By Jordan Hansen
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After a through dismantling of Rutgers on Oct. 24, it seems as if Ohio State might have finally found its groove on offense.
Junior quarterback Cardale Jones, who had been the Buckeyes’ starter through the first seven games of the season, was benched in favor of sophomore J.T. Barrett against the Scarlet Knights.
Barrett completed 14-of-18 passes for 223 yards and rushed for 101 yards. He finished with 5 touchdowns, 3 passing and 2 rushing.
“I’m just trying to go out there and do my best to help the team win,” Barrett said during a press conference after the win. “I think we are trying to do what we did last year — just getting back to what we do well on offense.”
After Braxton Miller’s injury last season, Barrett led the Buckeyes to an 11-1 record and finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting. The then-freshman set 17 Ohio State records and was voted conference Player of the Week seven times.
Barrett was lost last season after he fractured his ankle against Michigan in the Buckeye’s regular-season finale. Jones then helped the Buckeyes win the Big Ten and national championships.
However, he had underperformed through the first half of the season, and Buckeye head coach Urban Meyer made a change, which he seemed happy with after the game.
“J.T. Barrett, he came in and played very well, energized us, ran the ball very well,” Meyer said after the victory over Rutgers. “Anytime you’ve got a guy that can throw and run, that’s a problem. You see loaded defenses where the coverages aren’t very complicated. That’s what J.T. gives us.”
Northwestern up, Nebraska down
After back-to-back blowouts at the hands of Michigan and Iowa to give Northwestern its first two losses of the season, things were not looking good for the Wildcats.
However, Northwestern managed to pull out a gutsy 30-28 win over Nebraska and get its season slightly back on track. The Wildcats are now bowl eligible and still are technically in the Big Ten West race.
The Cornhuskers, on the other hand, fall to 3-5, and they will have to pull at least one major upset for a chance at postseason play. The team dropped those five games by a combined 13 points and four of them on the last play.
“The hard part is how do you react after so many losses,” Nebraska coach Mike Riley said during a Monday press conference. “It’s kind of unusual, but frankly, your season turns on close games and ours has gone the wrong way. We’re just going to everything we can to prepare them for the next opportunity that we get in to win a game.”
Cook has huge day
Michigan State got a huge performance out of quarterback Connor Cook on Oct. 24; he threw for 398 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Cook finished just 2 yards short of the Spartan passing record, but he did set a career high for passing yards. Michigan State has been struggling to run the ball this season and has relied heavily on the quarterback to move the offense.
He has been asked to throw the ball 130 times over the past three weeks and has been up to the challenge. Cook averaged 364 yards passing per game over that span, while throwing 6 touchdowns against just 1 interception.
“He’s in a decision-making position, and there’s a lot of confidence in him,” Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio said during the team’s Monday press conference. “There’s also a lot on his shoulders to make those decisions, but he’s very at ease with that, and that’s what’s making him, I think, so dynamic back there.”
