FanPost

The Cardinal Countdown...41 days until kickoff

Rich Schultz

#41 Jarrod Barnes

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Class: RS Sophomore

Ht/Wt: 5-11/200

Position: Safety

Hometown: Westerville, OH

Twitter: None

Thoughts: If you don’t know who Jarrod Barnes is now, you might soon. As of today, Barnes is your starting Strong Safety on a depleted secondary that will be put to the test over and over again. After seeing limited game time last year on special teams, potentially stepping into a starting role and trying to replace Hakeem Smith is a tough challenge to say the least. While most would attribute Barnes depth chart movement due to the Jermaine Reve injury, the coaches have complimented Barnes on his play this spring and the ability to make the tackle when required. Ennis touched on it Friday, but even if Barnes keeps doing work this fall, a true freshman or JUCO transfer could unseat him by September 1st and be little surprise to anyone. Also, with news breaking on Sunday that Terell Floyd would be moving to safety it doesn’t bode well for Barnes keeping the starting gig, but it’s all up in the air at this point.

Whether it’s Barnes, Floyd, or Williams all I ask, fan to fan, is that we give them some type of learning curve. We’ve been spoiled at the safety position for the last two or three years, so looking at the strong safety and Holliman back there with the same judgment as we did Smith and Pryor just isn’t fair. An offensive coordinator with half a brain will beat the hell out of our secondary until they prove repeatedly that they can make the play. Sometimes they may get burned, but I trust our guys will learn quicker than most expect.

Sweet Tweet: No twitter for Barnes…or Noble for that matter, but this gives me an opportunity to address a very important issue that I had some self-realization on during my vacation. Have you ever been in a car for over 5 hours with nursery rhymes playing nonstop? No? Well, here’s a free tip for you…don’t. After the migraine subsided and the internal bleeding appeared to stop, I did actually begin listening to the words of each song and found them utterly disturbing. Let’s review…

"It's raining; it's pouring. The old man is snoring. He went to bed and bumped his head, and he wouldn't get up in the morning"

Umm….pretty sure the old man has a concussion, and very well may have died while you’re over there singing your happy little butt off. Maybe instead of skipping around in the rain and whistling a tune you should have grabbed some smelling salts and kept him awake until a doctor showed up you? That ever cross anyone’s mind?

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"Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candle stick. Jack jumped high, Jack jumped low, Jack jumped over and burned his toe."

Wait, you mean the small child who decided to light a candle and then proceed to jump over it got burned? Paint me shocked! The little kid is lucky he didn't wind up with some third degree’s and pile of ash where his house used to stand. Do me a favor Jack, blow out the candle and get your ace in bed.

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"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall…"

Let me stop you there. First of all, congratulations on coming up with a terrible character name for a children’s song (Really? Humpty Dumpty?), second of all, congratulations on introducing my child to an apparent suicide at such a young age. I’m sure my two year old daughter will have zero emotional scars from learning that her jovial friend Humpty just took a leap and dismembered himself so significantly that he "couldn't be put back together again". Appreciate it.

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"Jack and Jill went up the hill, to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after"

This little boy Jack is a real piece of work. He’s jumping over candles, running up hills, where are his parents? Maybe the lack of adult supervision is what enticed Jack to run up a hill so steep that both he and his female companion rolled end over end until they reached the bottom. Aside from bruising and small fractures this fall also included the destruction of a crown which undoubtedly didn't belong to him. While this scenario was troublesome in itself, the part that piqued my interest was the little known second verse.

"Up Jack got and home did trot, as fast as he could caper, and went to bed to mend his head, with vinegar and brown paper"

Just so we’re all on the same page, this a-hole left Jill, went home, kicked back on some vinaigrette and smoked some brown paper to help with his head trauma.....great.

Listen up buddy, cause I’m only gonna say this one time, Jack. Stay the hell away from my daughter!