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SALT LAKE CITY — Bryson Barnes said the comment almost in passing — like it was just some minor thing.
After leading Utah to victory Saturday against California to lift his team to 5-1 on the season, Barnes explained that the injury he sustained — a spear to his chest against Oregon State — that also sent him to the hospital two weeks prior was "just bruised ribs."
Carry on, nothing to see here. Next question.
Though a quarterback takes far less hits than most offensive players, the position isn't immune to exceptionally skilled defensive players trying to lay the blow on the signal caller before he can get a pass off. Barnes, hurt and all, was no exception.
But it's just another day in the life of the former pig farmer from Milford, Utah.
Cowboy up!
In follow-up questions days laters, Barnes continued to essentially shrug off the injury as if it were just something a band-aid could fix and he'd be on his way. To him, he's suffered worse — or, at least, he's built up a tolerance based on his life as a farmer, football player and former wrestler.
No, not WWE style, but it might explain his toughness even more.
"When it comes to being tough, I mean, that's just kind of like the way you grow up being in a small town, pig farm and things like that," Barnes said. "But then I wrestled in high school, and you've got to be kind of tough to be a wrestler. I would say that's kind of where a lot of that came from. Regardless of if you're hurt, your hair's getting pulled all the time, it's not very fun, but toughness definitely comes from wrestling."
It's no reason then that Barnes continues to be the last man standing in the quarterback room. Knock him down and he'll find a way to get back up and fight even harder.
"He works very hard in everything he's doing, and I think that hard work has paid off for him," offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig said.
Against California, Barnes wasn't perfect, but he helped lead an offense that needed something — anything — different to jumpstart a previously anemic system. He finished the game with 128 yards on 15-of-21 passing — what Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham described as "not overwhelming" — but it got the job done to give the offense confidence in itself.
"I believe it was a step forward. ... He did look very comfortable, he's a very confident young man," Ludwig said. "Unbelievable preparation skills and confidence in what he's doing. I think that showed up on Saturday."
The path hasn't been easy for Barnes, who has served as a bit of a lightning rod to fans' frustrations on the season. Whether it was his former status as a walk-on player or frustrations about other quarterbacks not panning out, Barnes has taken it in stride and continues to fight.
Barnes started off the season as the team's starter in fill-in duty for an injured Cam Rising, but eventually lost the job after a poor performance against Baylor on the road in Week 2. He returned for a time in the second half against Oregon State — before he was speared and taken to the hospital — and then got the start against California, in a surprise to all.
"There's definitely frustrations and stuff like that," Barnes said. "But at the end of the day, the situation that you have, that's what you have to deal with; you've got to control what you can control, and what I could control is myself and what I was doing in practice each and every day, and being ready for these opportunities that could potentially arise in the future, and sure enough they did. So you've just got to take care of what you can control."
Barnes is doing what's in his control, and that's working hard each day to give Utah's offense what it needs to be in a position to win games. And the coaches are doing whatever they can to help polish Barnes into the player they need him to be.
"He's been in the program a long time and he knows the offense inside and out," Whittingham said. "He does a great job running the offense, managing the game."
The next step for Barnes, according to Whittingham, is that he has to trust his ability to make more plays down field.
"I would think just being a little more confident in his ability to get the chunk yardage up the field," Whittingham said. "And part of that is calling it, as well. But some plays are called to take shots, and if the quarterback doesn't like it, he doesn't take the shot, he checks it down. I think maybe becoming a little more confident in himself in putting the ball up the field."
To that point, Barnes agrees.
