Canton Rep
[FONT=Verdana,Times New Roman,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]SPORTS SPOTLIGHT: Barton uses difficult loss as his motivation[/FONT]
Wednesday, September 6, 2006 [FONT=Verdana,Times New Roman,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]SPORTS SPOTLIGHT TODD PORTER[/FONT]
COLUMBUS All hands had been slapped. The last Vince Young highlight had just played out in front of Ohio State right tackle Kirk Barton. He wanted to vomit.
On that September night at Ohio Stadium, Barton swears he stayed in his uniform in the locker room for 15 minutes afterward. He just sat there, oblivious to the smell and sweat that soaked his uniform, but not the heartbreak the Texas Longhorns had caused.
“There was dead silence,” Barton said Tuesday before preparations begin in earnest for Saturday night’s rematch between No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Texas in Austin. “It was like, all this work, all this effort went for nothing. And toward the end of the game with three, four minutes left, it felt like we were going to do it. Then all of a sudden that pass is completed and we don’t have it. ... It was a tough feeling.”
Young completed a perfectly thrown touchdown pass to Limas Sweed. Texas led, 25-22. Ohio State’s national championship dream fizzled.
“You slip your jersey over your head, and you hope you wake up tomorrow,” Barton said.
“You hope the game will start again, like you fell asleep in the locker room, and this was just a bad dream.”
Second chances don’t happen often. Especially when college football’s elite programs duck one another, trying to run a 12-game season until the end and sneak into a BCS game.
Ohio State and Texas aren’t like that. A national title is on the line Saturday night.
Barton knows it. His teammates know it. Buckeye Head Coach Jim Tressel knows it.
That is why Barton has tortured himself the past year. He estimates he has watched the Texas replay more than 50 times.
Each time Sweed barely gets one foot down in the end zone. Each time Texas wins.
Each time, Barton feels sick to his stomach. It is a feeling the 6-foot-6, 310-pounder from Perry High School wants to carry with him into Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
“When you have a lazy summer afternoon in Massillon, Ohio, and there’s nothing to do, I pop that in,” Barton said. “I’ve watched that one and the Iowa game from two years ago more than any game. You want to remember that feeling. That feeling motivates you. ... it’s like you got hit by a car.”
Life is sucked away. The wind knocked from the sails.
“Last year we really had high expectations, and in Week 2, they’re dashed,” Barton said. “We finished well, but it wasn’t what we wanted.”
Barton always watches the Sweed catch carefully.
“It was an unbelievable catch,” Barton said. “It’s like ... was his foot really down? Can I stop this, go back in history and erase it? It’s not a good feeling.”
It’s torture. And it’s what the Lombardi Award candidate uses for motivation this week.
“Torture? Sometimes you have to reinforce it,” he said. “It’s got to be in the front of your mind.”
Barton played his best game as a Buckeye last week. He dominated Northern Illinois’ defensive front. He graded out at 93 percent. Tressel doesn’t hand out many 90 percent grades on the line.
Last week’s game might not have been against just Northern Illinois. It might have been against himself, his fears.
One loss Saturday night, and the same feeling with hover around OSU’s locker room.
“I remember looking at the scoreboard in disbelief,” he said. “This isn’t so much about revenge as it a reminder we didn’t do so well (the last time). ... This game means everything to our season.”
And their psyches.
Reach Repository sports writer Todd Porter at (330) 580-8340 or e-mail:
[email protected]
