12-28-2007, 07:47 PM
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Head Coach
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Join Date: Nov 2003
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Second Chance
Confident that there will be no repeat of last year's title-game nightmare, tackles Kirk Barton and Alex Boone power Ohio State's championship drive against LSU
Posted: Monday December 24, 2007
By Austin Murphy
One is a scholar and a smart-ass, as outspoken as his coach is bland. The other is a wild man with a big grin whose mother says of him, "That boy could have fun at a funeral -- and he has." They are Ohio State senior tri-captain Kirk Barton and junior Alex Boone, respectively, and they are the finest pair of tackles in the nation, as valuable as they are voluble. While less technically polished than his counterpart on the right side, "I think I'm a lot dirtier," says Boone, making it clear that in his mind that's a good thing.
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Blessed with great wheels for his size, the 6' 5" 312-pounder has yet to outrun the grief that descended on him in the summer of 1998. Twelve years ago Barton's father, Kirk Sr., ran a thriving landscaping business, and the family lived in a spacious house on a 10-acre spread in Naples, Fla. "We had the nicest house on the block, a pool in the backyard," Barton recalls. "Life was good." That changed on Valentine's Day 1996, when Kirk Sr. was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare throat cancer.
He would live another 2 1/2 years and endure more than 20 operations, including one to have a large tube inserted into his throat to keep open his damaged trachea. To speak, "he had to put his finger on it," says Barton. "He was the greatest guy in the world, but when you have something like that, everybody looks. Everybody stares. It got to him." From the pain in his voice, it's clear that it got to Kirk as well.
Three months after losing her husband, Brigette Barton moved Kirk and his younger sister, Kasey, to Massillon, Ohio, to be closer to her family. She bought a house down the street from Calvary Cemetery, where Kirk Sr., an Ohio native, is buried. "He was so upset about his dad," remembers Brigette of the son she still calls, in unguarded moments, Kirkie. "He wanted to destroy our home movies."
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At a recent press conference Tressel was asked how much he'll miss Barton next fall. "A year ago," the coach said, "I'd have said, 'Very little.' " The line killed -- the bar isn't that high at a Tressel media gathering -- and he was smiling when he said it.
But Tressel wasn't always happy with Barton, such as in '04, when Zwick was the No. 1 quarterback but the team was responding better to Smith coming off the bench. The Buckeyes limped to a 3-3 start, and Barton popped off into a thicket of microphones. It was his opinion that Smith needed to be starting. Thereafter, Barton was seldom available for media sessions. Funny how that works.
Late last season Barton again tumbled briefly from Tressel's good graces when he showed up in the interview room after a win over Michigan with a lit cigar and a bottle of champagne. Afterward the coach reminded Barton that he is a role model for young Buckeyes fans.
The mild-mannered Tressel liked to rebuke Barton for his profanity on the practice field by asking him, "Would Brigette appreciate that language?" In the end the coach has come to appreciate what Barton brought to the team. "If everyone was like me, we'd be in trouble," says Tressel. "If everyone was like him, we'd be in trouble."
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SI.com - NCAA Football - Second Chance (cont.) - Monday December 24, 2007 9:49AM
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