Ohio State’s Season In Danger Before It Starts?

Posted on July 16, 2017, by Travis Pulver

Heading into the 2016 college football season, Ohio State fans were hopeful Urban Meyer had a solid squad ready to take the field. But they didn’t know. The group included very few veterans and was counting on players living up to their potential. They did, of course, and the Buckeyes ended finishing the season ranked No. 6 in the nation.

With the start of the 2017 season right around the corner, Buckeyes fans have every reason to be excited about the season.

Via @thecomeback

The only thing that could bring the hopes of Buckeyes fans everywhere crashing down to Earth would be an injury to a major player— like quarterback J.T. Barrett. For a brief moment, fans believed that was indeed the case.

There was never anything of substance leading fans to believe something had happened to their star quarterback. Just a rumor started on a message board that Barrett had broken his wrist during a recent summer workout. If true, that would mean his senior season would be over before it started.

Ohio State has had good luck in the recent past with quarterbacks. When Braxton Miller went down with a season ending injury in 2014, Barrett emerged to guide the team until he went down with a season ending injury as well. In stepped Cardale Jones and three games later the Buckeyes were national champions.

History has clearly been kind to Ohio State when it comes to backup quarterbacks, but when you go to the well too many times you are bound to come up dry eventually. They do have a couple of highly regarded youngsters in Dwayne Haskins and Joe Burrow. Both were four-star recruits and could very well become great college quarterbacks.

But fans haven’t seen them play much yet. They could be fantastic, but would you rather go into a season with an unproven commodity or a potential Heisman candidate?

The answer is obvious. So when Barrett got on Twitter to deny the rumor, it was certainly good news to fans.

My wrist is not broken just so y'all know👍🏾

— Jt Barrett (@JT_theQB4th) July 15, 2017

The news would have been better had it come with a clip of him throwing the ball or something. People can say anything they want, but that doesn’t mean it’s true. Had he said and shown himself throwing the ball or doing pushups or something, the rumor would have been completely put to rest.

As it stands, there will be many who take him at his word and consider the matter a dead issue. However, at the same time, there will be a percentage of people that will not until they have more tangible proof than a tweet.

After all, Barrett does have an injury history. There was the season ending injury in 2014. But then his high school career came to an early end thanks to an ACL injury. When you train to play at the competitive level Barrett plays at, training injuries are entirely possible.

Via @BryanDFischer

Considering the source, it is likely that there is nothing to the rumor. Is it possible he suffered an injury? Of course. Is it possible that no reputable news source would have gotten a hold of the story or a single person snapped a shot of Barrett with his wrist in a brace by now? Probably not.

Were it not for the internet, it would never have gained enough traction for Barrett to feel the need to deny it. But next time, Barrett—tweet some visual evidence as well, okay?