How Playoff Committee Should Look at Ohio State After J.T. Barrett Injury

COLUMBUS, Ohio — In football circles, the term "system quarterback" is somewhat of an insulting phrase, a backhanded way of discrediting one player in favor of the scheme in which he plays in.

But for Ohio State, its ability to produce such may be its only argument left for making the College Football Playoff.

The Buckeyes' playoff hopes took a significant hit on Saturday, when quarterback J.T. Barrett went down with a right ankle fracture in Ohio State's 42-28 win over Michigan. Head coach Urban Meyer confirmed that the Heisman Trophy candidate and star redshirt freshman quarterback will miss the remainder of the season, starting with next weekend's appearance in the Big Ten Championship Game.

That's significant in and of itself, as Ohio State will be without its best offensive player in a game against a Top 25 opponent in Wisconsin. More than that, the selection committee will take into account Barrett's absence when examining Ohio State's playoff candidacy.

That obviously doesn't bode well for the Buckeyes, as Barrett's play was a big reason why No. 6 Ohio State seemed to hold an edge over fellow one-loss playoff candidates TCU and Baylor. While the Buckeyes' Week 2 loss to 6-6 Virginia Tech was the "worst" of the bunch, that blow seemed to be lessened by the progress that Barrett had made since the second start of his college career.

That argument, however, has now gone out the window for Ohio State with the news of Barrett's season-ending injury. The fact of the matter is that the committee simply won't have a complete resume—good or bad—when it picks its final four one week from Sunday.

In this unprecedented playoff era, there's no telling exactly what that will mean for Ohio State. But ultimately, the Buckeyes will first have to win in Indianapolis next weekend—with their third-string quarterback—in order to keep the conversation a relevant one in Columbus.

"I didn't think of it until you said it," Meyer said when asked about OSU's playoff hopes following its win over the Wolverines. "I think it's all going to be how we play next week."

That might be wishful thinking on Meyer's part, but the Buckeyes would obviously benefit from a strong performance from new starting quarterback Cardale Jones in their upcoming conference championship game.

After all, while Barrett's gotten most of the credit, a plethora of playmakers have emerged for Ohio State this season, as the Buckeyes haven't been nearly as quarterback-reliant as they have been in years past.

That starts with running back Ezekiel Elliott, who has rushed for 1,182 yards through the first 12 games of his sophomore season. The Buckeyes pass-catchers have also been noticeably improved, with 10 players totaling double-digit reception numbers in an offense that entered Saturday's game ranked fifth in the nation in points per game (44.1).

"We're still headed in the right direction. I don't think one player really makes a whole team," Ohio State tight end Jeff Heuerman said. "Offensively, we have a lot of talented guys that have played a lot of football this year. They're just going to have to step up and make up for the lost ground."

Of course, the playoff committee is going to have to decide whether the production of those players was more the result of their own individual skill, or the precision passing of Barrett. And while he has been aided by his offense, there's no denying the importance of a player who in just 11 games managed to break the Buckeyes' single-season records for total yardage and touchdowns.

But although Barrett was putting up numbers that would have likely landed him in New York City as a Heisman Trophy finalist in two weeks, Ohio State could—or will at least try to—make the case that he is mostly a product of Meyer's spread system.

While Braxton Miller managed to put up record-shattering numbers in his two seasons under Meyer, former backup Kenny Guiton also posted eye-popping statistics in his opportunities, despite having admittedly less talent than the player for whom he was the understudy for.

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Enter Barrett, Meyer's third quarterback in Columbus and the third to put up nationally noticeable numbers. That can't completely be a coincidence at a storied school like Ohio State, although there's a reason why the redshirt freshman Barrett was able to pass the sophomore Jones on the Buckeyes depth chart this past offseason.

And even if Jones proves capable of running the OSU offense as efficiently as Barrett did, he won't have more than a one-game sample size to do so in front of the committee. Even with a potential conference championship and just one loss on their resume, that likely won't be enough for the committee to consider the Barrett-less Buckeyes one of the four best teams in America, which is its primary criteria.

After all, how can a team still be good when it's already on its third-string quarterback?

"The Buckeyes can be," Meyer insisted. "The Buckeyes certainly can be good. I've said this many times, the quarterback is a product of the guys around him and the guys around him are playing pretty good right now. The good thing is [Barrett and Jones] have a similar skill set, and so it's not like we're going to have to drastically change things."

Maybe not. But Barrett's injury does drastically change things. And fair or not, it will likely be the final blow in Ohio State's once-promising playoff campaign.

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.