Take Two: Does Ohio State need to bench QB J.T. Barrett?

Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling a handful of issues in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and a local expert from the Rivals.com network of team sites.

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In the preseason, Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett was a Heisman front-runner. He was supposed to deliver the Buckeyes back to the College Football Playoff.

With new offensive coordinators Kevin Wilson and Ryan Day in the fold, there were a lot of positive signs for Barrett and Ohio State’s offense.

Instead, it was a big thud last weekend in Ohio State’s 31-16 home loss to Oklahoma, which seemed to have all pistons firing. Barrett looked uncomfortable in the offense, completed just 19 of 35 passes for 183 yards and an interception.

There is something clearly wrong with the Buckeyes’ offense. And the question has been asked this week whether Ohio State has to do the uncomfortable thing and replace Barrett at quarterback.

According to coach Urban Meyer, “it’s not even a question” that Barrett is Ohio State’s best option, so a change does not seem imminent.

The good news for Ohio State is that the Buckeyes play Army, UNLV, Rutgers, Maryland and Nebraska in their next five games before a bye week.

The potential bad news: If Barrett continues to struggle and the offense looks stagnant during this relatively easy stretch, Meyer is going to have an uncomfortable decision to make in October: Stick with what’s not working out of loyalty to Barrett or switch quarterbacks and hope things get better with Penn State, Michigan and others licking their chops later in the season.

“Ohio State never had a three-time captain until this year when J.T. Barrett became the first in program history. It is obvious that the offense is dysfunctional and it is easy to give too much credit or assign too much blame to the quarterback. The major issues are a level above on the coaches for abandoning the run, much like what happened in the Clemson game. There also is always a risk of losing the team in the locker room if you make a change with a popular player like J.T.

“The question also has to be asked how much of this offense is really Kevin Wilson and Ryan Day and how much is it still Urban Meyer’s scheme and decisions? Saturday night did not look like a Wilson offense nor a Chip Kelly offense (Day coached under Kelly and that was a major selling point on bringing him into the program). Are there internal issues in terms of who really is calling the offense and can Urban divorce himself enough from the offensive channel to let his two new offensive coaches do what they were brought in to do? Dwayne Haskins, Joe Burrow and Tate Martell might be better fits for the type of offense that the Buckeyes would like to eventually run, but Burrow is coming off of a broken hand and Haskins and Martell have never played a collegiate snap.

“This brings us back to the original question, can you run a Wilson or Day offense with Barrett as the quarterback? The guy is a winner and has assaulted the Ohio State record book. He has not been the same quarterback since he got injured against Michigan in his redshirt freshman season. We have seen some glimpses of his former glory but generally against overmatched teams. It is an impossible situation that the Buckeyes are in. I just don’t think they can make a change right now but something has got to give.”

“Barrett looks horrible. I picked Ohio State to win it all and I really bought into Wilson’s and Day’s improvement, the changed offense and throwing down field more. What we saw against Oklahoma, I don’t think that was fully Wilson’s offense. His offense is predicated more on taking shots downfield. I don’t think they have confidence in Barrett to do that. He can’t lead you to a comeback if you fall behind because he can’t throw consistently. The way he looked in that game, he’s not the solution. I just don’t know if they have a solution behind him.”