FAYETTEVILLE -- College football's new redshirt rule was written for guys like Arkansas Razorbacks receiver Jarrod Barnes.
Unfortunately for the former Cabot High School star quarterback and receiver, it was written a year too late.
The new rule, effective this season, allows coaches to play a player up to four games. Then, if not used in a fifth, restore like a redshirt his 2018 eligibility stage for 2019. Last year, if you played any and weren't injured to apply for a hardship, your season's eligibility was spent.
So under last year's 4-8 Bret Bielema regime,
Barnes forsook his freshman eligibility for playing six plays in the 49-7 season-opening rout of lower division Florida A&M in Little Rock for the 4-8 team in the final season under former coach Bret Bielema. Barnes recorded stats in those six plays, two catches for 30 yards including a first down achieved on a 26-yard catch, that seemed to have warranted a varsity second look but he never got it.
So, he's a sophomore for the 2018 season under new Coach Chad Morris.
"I've heard about the new rule," Morris said. "I wish it had happened to me, but I can't go back in the past and change it. It is what it is you've just got to move on from it."
Too bad, it seems, he didn't feign injury as some in his situation are reported to have done to apply for a medical hardship redshirt.
"No," Barnes replied when asked if he was injured last year. "I did not."
Presumably if Barnes doesn't fit into the two-deep, Morris, new offensive coordinator Joe Craddock and new receivers coach Justin Stepp will limit Barnes' 2018 game participation to four games or less so he can get that redshirt sophomore year going into 2019 he should have had as a redshirt freshman going into 2018.
"It's not about me," Barnes said of whether to play just four or more games this season. "It's about me helping the team. If that is what it is, then that's what it's going to be."
Barnes showed the speed to help the team last year against Florida A&M that attracted Alabama and Auburn in his 2017 recruiting process.
"Alabama and Auburn contacted me a week before signing date, but I was already committed," Barnes said. "I always wanted to come here since I was little. When they offered me, I committed."
Barnes received no more varsity opportunities post Florida A&M, mainly because his 5-11 frame that carried less than 170 pounds might have been mashed by those pulverizing Southeastern Conference defenses. He is stouter now after an offseason and summer under new strength coach Trumain Carroll and the Razorbacks' nutritionists.
"Yeah, they wanted me to come back at 185 or 190 and I'm right around that weight," Barnes said. " I'm 184. I worked hard and ate a lot."
The Bielema staff was tempted to play Barnes again last season, practicing him with the varsity the first five game weeks.
"I got moved to scout team the week that we played Alabama," Barnes said. "It got me down a little bit. You just have to forget about it.
"I just had to get used to overcoming adversity. I had to figure out you just forget about it and do what you can do."
How did Stepp say he did last spring?
"He said I'm playing good but everybody can always do better," Barnes said. "Work on being the best you can be."
Aside from the new coaches, Barnes said a couple of old hands help him learn this new offense. He said senior receivers Jared Cornelius, granted a medical hardship upon a torn Achilles heel ending is 2017 season at three games, and Jonathan Nance are a big help.
"It's good," Barnes said of Cornelius' return. "Because he has a big impact on the team and is one of the biggest leaders we have in the receivers room. Him and Jonathan Nance because Jonathan Nance is at my position (slot, though Barnes also sometimes splits wide) mostly. I look to him for advice."
Sports on 08/21/2018