COLUMBUS, Ohio -- J.T. Barrett might not have the strongest arm on Ohio State's roster, but he wants to make it clear that this doesn't mean his arm is weak.
In a passionate post-practice media session, Barrett spent nearly two minutes defending his ability to throw deep down the field, particularly as it related to head-to-head comparisons with teammate Cardale Jones.
"[The offense] really didn't change with Cardale in the game," Barrett, a redshirt sophomore, said on Wednesday evening. "Like last year when I was playing, how many deep balls did I throw to Devin [Smith]? All the deep balls that we had were to Devin, and I threw them, but I guess since I'm not 6-5 and 250 [pounds] that I didn't have a strong arm or something. I didn't know what that was about.
"We didn't have new plays in so Cardale could throw the ball farther down the field. It was our base plays, and we just worked within that. Nothing has changed, so I even forgot about your question because I've wanted to say that for a long time to be honest with you, because I didn't know what that was about."
During the months of debate that swirled around Ohio State's quarterback battle, the strengths of Barrett and Jones often were simplified in a way that seemed to rankle Barrett. Despite throwing for 2,834 yards before breaking his ankle in the regular-season finale against Michigan, Barrett often was labeled as a dual-threat option, with much of the focus on his rushing ability. That was in contrast to Jones, whose rocket arm dominated the conversation.
Statistically, there really wasn't much difference between the 9.3 yards per attempt Jones averaged last season and the 9.0 Barrett posted in his first season as a starter. Barrett did admit Jones has the edge in terms of pure power, but he stressed that he had delivered plenty of deep passes for the Buckeyes a year ago as well and that the framework of the offense "wasn't doing anything different."
"I threw deep balls the whole year, and it was like, 'Oh, Cardale, he's got a strong arm, they're going to be throwing deeper and pass it downfield,'" Barrett said. "What? What are you talking about? I can do the same things. The thing is, now when a play breaks down and somebody is 80 yards down the field, am I going to throw it? Absolutely not. Cardale is going to throw that. I'm not going to throw that. But I feel that's different.
"I was just like, 'That's crazy to me.' If you go back and watch film, I threw a lot of deep balls. Were some underthrown? Absolutely. That was earlier in the year, and I got better as the year went on. But I was like, 'Do I have a weeny arm?' In the offseason that was in my head the whole time I was lifting weights, because I felt like I couldn't throw the ball deep because you all were talking bad about me."
Previously, Barrett just let his numbers do the talking to answer the doubts. But he apparently was ready to cut loose with more than just his arm to shoot down the skeptics.