Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer faced the media on Friday in advance of the Buckeyes’ Big Ten title game appearance against Wisconsin and, as you could expect, was peppered by questions about his quarterback J.T. Barrett.
The senior suffered a knee injury during pregame warmups last week against Michigan and underwent surgery on Sunday. While the doctors have cleared the signal-caller to play in Indianapolis on Saturday night, how much and whether he will start are two questions that still sound like they are up in the air.
“Those are all decisions I’m going to make tomorrow. I want to see where -- we’re going to have a walk-through here in a little bit. Still having conversations with Coach (Ryan) Day and Coach (Kevin) Wilson about it,” said Meyer. “I don’t want to get into too much detail because it’s J.T.'s business, but so much of it has to do with how he does during the course of the week. And the trainers and doctors are very involved. And it’s not finished. He’s still 24 hours out. So I’ve had a player do it before, that was scoped earlier in the week and played. And then I’ve had others that can’t. And the body has to react a certain way. And his has been very positive.”
Meyer was asked over 15 questions related to Barrett’s status or how the knee injury could affect his play against the Badgers all told.
The team did practice on Thursday and will do a walkthrough at Lucas Oil Stadium Friday evening so we’ll have a good idea about the quarterback’s starting status at some point tomorrow during warmups. Either way, he’ll be suited up and likely the guy behind center for OSU if he’s good to go and won’t hamper the offense. Backup Dwayne Haskins did finish off the victory against the rival Wolverines a week ago and appears likely to play some role against Wisconsin either way based on Meyer’s comments.