That is not a knock on Barrett but a nod at a strange streak going for the Scarlet and Gray at the game’s most important position.
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Three times since Troy Smith won the Heisman Trophy in 2006, Ohio State has had a senior set to return as a starter, and three times someone else has finished the season at the helm of the Buckeyes offense.
First came Smith’s successor, Todd Boeckman. The St. Henry native was benched early in his senior season (2008) in favor of five-star freshman Terrelle Pryor, who helped the Buckeyes beat Michigan and win a share of the Big Ten championship.
Pryor started the next two years, but his senior season was nixed by an NCAA investigation that led him to enter the supplemental NFL draft in the summer of 2011.
The youngster who replaced him, Wayne High School star Braxton Miller, was a three-year starter poised to lead a highly rated Ohio State team in 2014 until a shoulder injury knocked him out for the year.
He came back in 2015 as a receiver after Barrett and Cardale Jones combined to lead the Buckeyes to the national championship.
Believe it or not, this is not an entirely new phenomenon.
Three times from 1968-78 a veteran Ohio State quarterback was benched for someone else when all was said and done.
In 1968, sophomores Rex Kern and Ron Maciejowski both moved ahead of Dayton-area native and two-year starter Bill Long. Like Barrett and Jones, they helped the Buckeyes to an undefeated season and a national championship.
Five years later, Cornelius Greene supplanted veteran Greg Hare, and another undefeated Big Ten championship season was coach Woody Hayes’ reward.
The third time was not the charm for Hayes, though, as three years later the decision to replace senior Rod Gerald with ballyhooed true freshman Art Schlichter backfired.
The Buckeyes ended up fourth in the Big Ten and went to the Gator Bowl, where Hayes punched a Clemson player who had just made a game-clinching interception. That was the last game Hayes coached as he was subsequently fired.
So six times in 50 years, Ohio State has had to unexpectedly change quarterbacks, but more of those years have ended in success than failure.
The final tally: four Big Ten titles and two national championships to go with two fourth-place conference finishes.
Only time will tell if something similarly strange is in store for Barrett and the 2017 Buckeyes, but it promises to be interesting no matter what.
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