COLUMBUS, Ohio — Matt Barnes' first visit to Ohio State left him with wonder and hope, even if the dream seemed far-fetched.
He was 24 years old, in his brief time as an assistant at Tiffin University, traveling to Columbus on a recruiting trip 11 years ago.
“I just remember driving by the Woody Hayes building and the practice fields and the way everything was manicured,” Barnes said. “I remember thinking it was beautiful, and I would just love an opportunity to be a part of something like that.”
He also knew how steep the odds against that were. Coaching is a tough profession, and Barnes didn't have the advantages some have. Barnes had only been a Division III player at Salisbury University in his native Maryland. His previous coaching stops had been at Delaware Valley College in Pennsylvania and West Virginia Wesleyan.
But Barnes had intelligence, an unquenchable passion for football, and natural leadership skills. It took three more stops along the coaching ladder, but the kid who once got kicked out of seventh-grade English class for drawing football plays in his binder did make it to Ohio State when Ryan Day hired him as a special teams coordinator/assistant secondary coach two years ago. In February, he was promoted to secondary coach.
Then, in September, came his biggest jump, in responsibility if not title. After Ohio State's defense struggled early this season under coordinator Kerry Coombs, coach Ryan Day gave Barnes signal-calling duties for the unit. Since then, the Buckeyes' defense has found its groove. Ohio State has allowed only 44 points in its last four games.
If that continues, Barnes will cement his place as a rising star. Those who knew him early in his career are hardly surprised.
High football IQ
Jim Clements had not done it before, and he hasn't done it since.
But to him, Barnes was different.
Clements, now the head coach at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania but then at Delaware Valley College, was interviewing candidates to coach running backs at his Division III school.
“We had interviewed a handful of guys already, and Matt came in and really blew me away,” Clements said. “The maturity of him — he had just graduated college. He was very, very well-spoken. His football IQ was very high for someone that (young). He was prepared. You could tell why he was a captain. I could tell how people could respect him and look up to him and listen to him.”
But as impressed as he was, Clements told Barnes he had other candidates to interview. While Barnes walked to his car, Clements returned to the coaches' room, where his assistants were similarly impressed by Barnes. So Clements decided to end the interview process right then.
“I just ran out to the parking lot and said, ‘Matt, you got the job. I’m not going to interview anyone else. It’s yours if you want it,’ ” Clements said.
Barnes laughed when told that story. He was prepared for that interview. Barnes had prepared for it almost his whole life.
“That was a unique experience for me,” he said. “It was my first-ever interview, and I had known for the longest time that I wanted to get into coaching. I was young, but I had put so much — literally at that point years — into preparing for that type of a moment. I just remember when that happened, I felt like it was such like a redeeming moment for me.”
Coach on the field as a player
Barnes grew up in Ijamsville, Md., near Frederick. His dad owned a jewelry store. His mom is a retired nurse. He has three older brothers, who did what older brothers often do to their baby brother.
“Let's go with mental toughness,” Barnes said dryly of what they instilled in him.
Almost as early as he could remember, Barnes was obsessed with football. Even he's not sure why, other than he was intrigued by its strategy. He would line up pro-wrestling figurines as offenses and defenses. He was kicked out of a seventh-grade English class for diagramming plays instead of focusing on the coursework.
Barnes was smart enough to be admitted to academically elite Georgetown University, where the football program takes a back seat to basketball.
“I say it somewhat jokingly, but it's really the truth that my grades weren't really good enough to get in without football, and I really wasn't a good enough football player to go there without my grades,” Barnes said. “To this day I don't really know how that worked.”
He played linebacker there for two years before financial reasons caused him to transfer to Salisbury University, where his brother Pat had played.
Barnes made his mark immediately, on and off the field.
“He was a player, but he was a coach (unofficially) also,” said coach Sherman Wood, who's in his 23rd year at Salisbury, a Division III power. “He was a coach on the field. He would spend time with our coaching staff, our defensive staff and just talk about ways that could make us better. We kind of thought that was a little different from someone who just came to the program.
“I mean, he just all of a sudden just grabbed it by the horns and told us what to do, so to speak. But everything he said made a lot of sense."
Barnes helped lead the Sea Gulls to consecutive 9-2 seasons. Teammates voted him captain his senior year. He was the leading tackler in his final season.
“I don't think of him as a big, bulky Dick Butkus-type kid,” Wood said. “He had those stats because of his knowledge of the game.”
Barnes, who was listed at 5-9 and 210 pounds, recalled his playing career with characteristic self-deprecation. He credited his defensive line for keeping him free to make tackles.
“I was in the right spot at the right time, and I got run over at least once or twice a game,” he said.
Even as a player, he planned for a future in coaching. While traveling to road games, he'd call his roommates from the bus to make sure the combination TV/VCR was recording other games so that Barnes would have tape to analyze when he returned.
“My roommates in college thought I was out of my mind,” he said. “I was just obsessed with football. I had like 50 VHS tapes.”
Barnes was a constant presence in coaches' rooms, particularly defensive coordinator Robb Disbennett.
“I just wore ‘em out, like they couldn’t get rid of me,” Barnes said. “I distinctly remember hearing on multiple occasions, ‘Hey, you need to go. I’ve got work to do. You can’t just sit in here.’ I’d ask them 8 million questions.”
Remembering his past
Jim Clements' hunch about Barnes proved correct. Though he'd been a linebacker in college, Barnes was an effective running backs coach. Matt Cook was a junior at Delaware Valley when Barnes arrived, on his way to becoming the school's all-time leading rusher, a record he still holds. Cook didn't know it, but he'd played against Barnes.
“When he came on as a coach, that was the first thing he said,” Cook said. “He goes, ‘Man, I remember tackling you. It was not fun.' ”
Playing for Barnes was fun, Cook said, but it wasn’t easy. He had three position coaches. Barnes pushed him the hardest, never let him coast on his natural ability.
“As soon as he came in, he brought a sense of excitement to us,” Cook said. “He was doing the drills with us. We're doing this four-cone drill, and he's like, 'Get by me without me touching you.' And nobody could get by him. And we're like, 'Come on, coach.' He was very, very energetic and brought the hype to the game.”
Barnes' energy was undeniable, but what also impressed Cook and Clements was Barnes' listening skills. Cook appreciated how receptive Barnes’ was to his suggestions during games.
“Sometimes young coaches want to tell you how much they know, rather than listen,” Clements said. “Matt would listen, take things in. If he was going to tell you something, it was definitely something that was worth listening to. He always had a point. He wanted to know the why. Why are we doing this? That's always a good thing because that's what your players are going to want to know.”
Clements knew he wouldn't be able to retain Barnes for long, and he didn't. He helped him, as did Wood, as Barnes climbed the coaching ladder. Barnes appreciates that and cherishes time catching up with them at coaches' conventions.
“Some guys, when they get opportunities like Matt has, they may big-time you,” Clements said. “He understands how hard everybody works, and he doesn't take himself more seriously than anybody else coaching the sport. I just really appreciate him for that. He's a guy that you really respect because he's earned everything he's gotten, and he's worked his ass off.”
When Barnes reminisced about his first time seeing Ohio State, he said he thought about Clements and people like him who helped him on his path.
“When it happened for me here, I called Clem, and I was very emotional,” Barnes said. “I was just very, very thankful that he had given me that (first) opportunity. I have had this opportunity because of a laundry list of people that cared enough about me to help me get to this point.”
This is not the first time Barnes has served as a defensive play-caller. He did the same as linebackers coach for Maryland in 2018 following the departure of head coach D.J. Durkin. But this is a higher-profile situation. If Ohio State’s defense continues its recent improvement, Barnes’ coaching stock will only rise. Like most assistant coaches, he aspires to be a head coach someday.
But at 35 years old, he’s not in a rush. He’s married to his wife, Christina, whom he calls “the head coach.” They have a 1-year-old son, Henry, “who is an absolute maniac.”
Having a toddler can exhaust any parent, and the demands of coaching never end.
“I’m so tired all day long,” he said, “but when we got to 2 o’clock and meetings start at 2:30, I get around the guys, and I feel a different energy than I’ve had all day. There’s no coffee or whatever that gets you to the point of the excitement of getting a chance to coach some of the best players in the country.
“So I’m not saying I wouldn’t ever want to be a head coach. But I really, really enjoy the strategy of it and building defenses. That part really does it for me. I’m really hoping I can remain in a similar role to what I’m doing now in whatever capacity that may be.”
