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The game after veteran T.J. McCollum was injured last season, Derrick Barnes readied for his first career start.
Against Wisconsin, perhaps the Big Ten’s biggest, most-physical offensive front.
And it didn’t go well. The Badgers scored on their first possession, after only three plays, the last being a 67-yard touchdown run. And Barnes, then a freshman, was benched shortly after.
Although the linebacker performed better in the second half of the season — he started one more game, vs. Nebraska two weeks later, and had 16 tackles, a half for loss for the year — he still carries the lessons from the debut forward.
“We like to call it getting thrown in the fire,” Barnes said Wednesday after Purdue’s second spring practice, his second as the No. 1 middle linebacker. “I’m a freshman out there playing against a top-10 team. It was definitely hard and I went out there nervous and everybody was telling me to calm down. But I went into the game and everything was fast. It was super fast. I never said I couldn’t do it, but the action showed I wasn’t ready.”
Barnes, a 6-foot-1, 240-pounder, knows that he has to be in the playbook as much as possible, especially now that he’s a starter. And he’s doing so at a different position. Last season, he was a weak-side ‘backer, and while it’s not a huge shift positionally, the assignments are different. And through the first couple spring practice, he’s made the occasional mistake, but the potential is promising.
“It’s a lot to learn,” he said.
“Last year was very fast to me. I can tell now that it’s slowing down as the days go by. … Now I know where to be at the right time. Last year, I was always a step behind. Now I’m right on target, moving with everybody, and it’s awesome.”
Junior Markus Bailey, who has moved over to the weakside, likes Barnes’ approach, seeing that the sophomore takes training seriously, from the physical part to the mental.
“I think Derrick is a guy who does work hard, (but) he has to get the mental side of it down,” Bailey said. “He wants to be great, puts in the work and he’ll come along. He has great potential. Wisconsin is a tough O-line to go against, but that was definitely an eye-opening experience for him, seeing what it’s really like on the Big Ten level with guys coming at you like that. You have to be on your Ps and Qs, there can be no hesitation, especially against a team like Wisconsin.”
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