Ohio State Football: JT Barrett's Case for the Heisman Trophy

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Of all of the criteria that a Heisman Trophy winner typically has to meet, J.T. Barrett is missing just one.

And that's quickly changing.

Already a record-setting quarterback at a premier program like Ohio State, Barrett's 9-1 record as the Buckeyes' starter has him on the verge of an invitation to New York as a finalist for college football's most prestigious individual award.

According to Bovada, Barrett currently possesses the third-best odds (15-1) to walk away with this season's Heisman Trophy, trailing only Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota (2-5) and Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon (9-4).

While this year's Heisman appears to be Mariota's to lose, there's a compelling case that Barrett deserves to have his name spoken in the same vein.

What Mariota has done and meant for the 9-1 Ducks has been more than impressive, but the redshirt freshman Barrett's numbers have been comparable.

Mariota has compiled more passing yards, a higher passer rating and fewer interceptions than Barrett has through 10 games, but the Buckeyes signal-caller has accounted for more rushing yards and as many total touchdowns as Mariota has, with three games likely remaining on each of their respective schedules.

Player	Pass Yards	Rush Yards	Passer Rating	Total TDs	Interceptions
Mariota	2,780	524	184.6	38	2
Barrett	2,356	771	171.6	38	8

Those numbers would indicate that Mariota is deserving of his status as the current Heisman front-runner, although perhaps not by as wide of a margin as the Las Vegas odds currently favor him by.

But fair or not, Mariota entered the season as a Heisman contender, while Barrett was Braxton Miller's backup until two weeks prior to the start of the season.

According to one prominent Heisman Trophy analyst, that matters. Whereas Mariota's name has been in the mind of Heisman voters since last season came to a close, Barrett is still in the process of proving that his meteoric rise has been more than just a fluke, only recently entering serious contention for the award.

"If J.T. Barrett's name was Braxton Miller and he had the same stats, he'd probably be the front-runner right now," Heisman Pundit founder and Heisman.com writer Chris Huston told Bleacher Report in October.

As Huston explained at the time, outside of preseason hype, Barrett was already on pace to possess all of the qualities that Heisman voters look for in a winner.

A quarterback on a traditional power who's on track to meet the modern Heisman benchmarks (4,000 total yards, 40 total touchdowns), all Barrett was missing from his resume was a signature victory and the Buckeyes being in national championship contention.

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That's all changed in the past two weeks, with Ohio State's Nov. 8 win over eighth-ranked Michigan State coinciding with the sixth-ranked Buckeyes' reinsertion into the College Football Playoff picture.

It also didn't hurt that Barrett's best game came in OSU's showdown with the Spartans, as he tallied 386 total yards (300 passing, 86 rushing) and five touchdowns in the 49-37 Buckeyes victory.

“I don’t know if my endorsement matters, but I do,” Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer said when asked this past Monday if he believes Barrett should be considered for the Heisman. “[I’ve] been fortunate to coach some guys that have been in New York, and he’s a Heisman candidate.”

If not for Barrett's early lack of name recognition, he may be more than that.

After all, if statement games matter—and Johnny Manziel's takedown of Alabama in 2012 proves that, to at least some degree, they do—then Barrett's road triumph over Michigan State trumps anything that Mariota has done in a single game in his junior campaign.

An Oct. 11 road win over No. 18 UCLA was probably Mariota's most comparable big game, taking into account both the opponent's ranking and road atmosphere.

However, Mariota didn't fare as well against the lower-ranked Bruins as Barrett did against the favored Spartans, totaling fewer yards and touchdowns in his statement road game.

Player	Opponent	Total Yards	Total TDs	Outcome
Barrett	No. 8 Michigan State	386	5	49-37 W
Mariota	No. 18 UCLA	285	4	42-30 W

It is worth noting that Mariota and Barrett do share a common opponent in Michigan State, with Oregon handing the Spartans a 46-27 defeat in the second week of the season. While the Ducks played that game in Eugene, Mariota's numbers were still less impressive than Barrett's, with the Oregon quarterback totaling 358 yards and three touchdowns against the Spartans.

Player	Total Yards	Touchdowns	Result	Home/Away
Barrett	386	5	49-37 W	Away
Mariota	358	3	46-27 W	Home

Though one could argue that while neither of Mariota's two "statement" games stack up to Barrett's, he does have two to his credit, whereas Barrett only has one.

But Barrett's 32 rushing yards and two touchdowns on a sprained MCL in the overtime portion of Ohio State's Oct. 25 road win over Penn State have proven to be a turning point in the Buckeyes' season, erasing what was an otherwise pedestrian day for the redshirt freshman.

More than that, for an award that's supposed to go to college football's most outstanding player, you'd be hard-pressed to find one who has been more outstanding than Barrett.

Reviving the national title hopes of a team that was counted out when Miller went down two weeks before the start of the season, Barrett has proven to be one of the sport's unlikely stars—as exciting to watch as he is efficient.

With three games likely left to make his case—including a potential head-to-head matchup with Gordon in the Big Ten title game—Barrett still has time to add another signature victory to his already impressive resume.

As Ohio State builds a Heisman campaign for its star quarterback, Barrett's name recognition should no longer be lacking, although even he admits that the thought of him as a candidate is somewhat surreal.

“It’s kind of crazy to think about, being that that’s really never on my mind,” Barrett said on Wednesday. “I’m just going out there every Saturday and trying to win football games. I’m grateful that I’m on that list, but like I said, the objective every week is to go out there and win games.”

That's what's gotten Barrett this far. And if he continues to do that, his already strong case will only get stronger.

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Ohio State Lead Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com and recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.