COLUMBUS — When J.T. Barrett finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting in 2014, many people figured he would be return to the voting again.
What they didn’t count on was that it would be two years until he was mentioned again as a Heisman contender.
After throwing for 650 yards and 10 touchdowns with only one interception and rushing for 159 yards and three scores in Ohio State’s first three games, Barrett is once again in the Heisman race. The Bovada sports book lists him and Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey in a tie for second at 7-1 odds behind the favorite, Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson, who is listed at 2-5 odds. Deshaun Watson and Jabrill Peppers are ranked fourth and fifth.
Barrett says the Heisman isn’t something he thinks about. “My main thing is winning,” he said on Monday. “That’s what I’m about. If winning gets me the Heisman Trophy, I’m OK with that. But I’m not going to do anything outside myself to get the Heisman Trophy.
“I like the way I play, the way I approach the game. I have a team mentality. I am who I am. Love it or hate it, that’s how it’s going to be.”
Notes:
• No LSU contact: Urban Meyer put a quick end to a rumor that LSU had contacted him or planned to contact him about replacing recently fired football coach Les Miles on the Big Ten coaches teleconference on Tuesday.
“No, I have not been contacted. And I am going to be the coach at Ohio State,” he said.
The rumor started when the website FootballScoop.com reported that “a source” told them that LSU had set its sights on a national championship caliber coach and that it “wanted to gauge the interest” of top coaches like Nick Saban, Bob Stoops, Jimbo Fisher, Tom Herman and Meyer.
• Recruit de-commits: Akron Hoban quarterback Danny Clark announced on Twitter on Tuesday that he has ended his verbal commitment to Ohio State.
Clark committed to Ohio State in December 2013 after his freshman season. He was playing for Massillon at that time.
Clark had called playing for Ohio State his dream and has an Ohio State tattoo on his arm. In a statement on Twitter, he said playing for OSU had been his dream since he was six years old.
“I truly felt I was born to play for the Buckeyes,” Clark said. He said the biggest reason for ending his commitment to Ohio State was that as as a pro style quarterback his style might not fit as well at Ohio State as it would somewhere else.
“I have been forced to accept the fact that as a pro-style quarterback, maybe my style would be a good fit elsewhere. It is with a very heavy heart and a clear conscience that I am officially decommitting from OSU and will open up my recruitment for the first time since all this began,” he said.
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