Dec 1, 2017 4 min read

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J.T. Barrett has seen enough Big Ten championship games from the sideline.

So just six days after undergoing surgery on his injured right knee, the Ohio State quarterback is preparing to start Saturday against No. 3 Wisconsin.

Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer said Friday that Barrett, the three-time conference quarterback of the year, has been cleared to play after undergoing 15 hours of treatment per day since having a procedure he did not specify.

“Certain people probably couldn’t do it, but J.T.’s a little different,” Meyer said after confirming Barrett had surgery following last week’s win at Michigan. “He’s just one of the toughest human beings I’ve ever come across in my career. He’s just a very unique individual.”

Most players, Meyer noted, require at least two or three weeks to recover from minor knee surgery. Barrett, however, was throwing at practice Wednesday and took his regular regimen of snaps Thursday. If his recovery continues into Saturday, Barrett will start.

“It takes a rare individual to do that because there is a pain threshold,” Meyer said. “That’s not normal.”

The eighth-ranked Buckeyes (8-1 Big Ten, No. 8 CFP, 10-2) must figure out how effective he will be.

Meyer acknowledged Ohio State needs Barrett to be close to full mobility against one of the nation’s stingiest defenses. And if Barrett isn’t himself, Meyer will go with redshirt freshman Dwayne Haskins, who led the Buckeyes to 17 straight points to rally for the win over the Wolverines.

Barrett has been here before – and so have the Badgers (9-0, No. 4 CFP, 12-0).

Three years ago, Barrett fractured his ankle against Michigan then cheered on backup Cardale Jones during a 59-0 rout of Wisconsin in the title game. Jones and the Buckeyes went on to defeat Alabama and Oregon to finish a national championship run.

QBs key in ACC finale: The voids to fill were huge and the pressure enormous for both Clemson’s Kelly Bryant and Miami’s Malik Rosier. How would the backups fare when they were promoted to starters?

Quite well. Quite well, indeed.

Bryant leads the top-ranked Tigers ( 11-1, CFP No. 1) against Rosier’s No. 7 Hurricanes (10-1, CFP No. 7) in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship Saturday night, a game likely to determine a spot in the College Football Playoff. Each quarterback is looking to cap a remarkable debut season as starter with a league trophy and the chance to chase a national title.

The Tigers are seeking their third straight ACC title and fourth in seven seasons. Miami, expected to grab plenty of titles when it joined the ACC in 2004, is in its first

The path both took to the starting job is remarkably similar. Bryant followed national championship winner and three-year starter Deshaun Watson as Tigers’ leader. Rosier succeeded three-year starter Brad Kaaya for Miami.

Oklahoma needs win to reach playoffs: Oklahoma could already be playoff bound, except Heisman Trophy front-runner Baker Mayfield and the No. 2 Sooners have to play in the revived Big 12 championship game – and beat No. 10 TCU for the second time in four weeks.

For a league left out of the College Football Playoff twice in the first three years of the system, the timing of its title game return could be less than ideal.

“We’ve known it for a while, and we’re excited to play,” Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley said. “If they all of a sudden sprung this on us here at the end, you probably wouldn’t be real happy about it. It’s another chance for us to go play. It’s a great thing, I think, for our league to showcase two great football teams going at it.”

The Sooners (11-1, 8-1, No. 3 CFP) would almost certainly be a lock for one of the four playoff spots even without another win. But a loss could unravel everything the league had hoped for by resuming its championship game after a six-season hiatus.

Even TCU coach Gary Patterson acknowledged, when asked this week, that “probably the best (outcome) for the Big 12 is Oklahoma to win.”

That doesn’t mean the Horned Frogs (7-2, No. 11 CFP, 10-2) are going to roll over and clear a playoff path for Oklahoma.

Patterson’s group relishes the chance to avenge a 38-20 loss in Norman, Okla., just three weeks ago and win a championship.