Before the Bowling Green game on Oct. 10 at Kent State, senior wide receiver Freddie Barnes was feeling pretty good.

Barnes joked with his teammates and stayed loose, even dancing to the warm-up music in the stadium: the Black Eyed Peas’ hit song, ‘I Gotta Feeling.’ Little did Barnes know that the good feeling was a precursor to the game of his life.

Call it a Catch-22: Barnes caught 22 passes for 278 yards and three touchdowns, coming one reception shy of the NCAA single-game record.

‘When I found out, I couldn’t believe it,’ Barnes said. ‘I thought I was close to 20 catches, and then I was going through my phone and saw a text from my mom saying it was 22.’

Barnes may not have notched the single-game reception record, but he has his eye on a bigger prize: the single-season receptions record. After Saturday’s 10-catch, three-touchdown performance in a 31-17 win over Ball State, Barnes extended his nation-leading numbers to 85 receptions and 882 yards. He is also tied for the Division-I lead with eight touchdowns.

Barnes currently holds a 31-catch lead over his closest competitors. Already surpassing his career-high total of 82 receptions, he is on track to break Houston receiver Manny Hazard’s 20-year-old reception record of 142.

‘I can’t just come out and say I’m going to catch 150 balls this year,’ Barnes said. ‘But it’s definitely an honor to be mentioned in the same breath. If it happens, it’ll be amazing.’

Barnes came back to Bowling Green for a fifth season that he envisioned as redemption from a disappointing 2008 campaign limited by injuries.

Slowed down by a Grade 3 ACL sprain, Barnes only caught 41 passes last year – his fewest since he came into the school as a quarterback.

Initially expected to continue as the next signal-caller at Bowling Green and become the next Omar Jacobs or Josh Harris, Barnes has instead carved his own place in university lore.

‘It’s always about the team first,’ Falcons coach Dave Clawson said. ‘But I can certainly say what Freddie is doing is helping our team.’

Fortunately for him and for the Falcons, he was moved to wide receiver, where he and senior quarterback Tyler Sheehan have formed one of the most prolific duos in school history the past three years.

But that doesn’t mean Barnes still doesn’t stay on top of his passing game. Last year, he completed 3-of-4 passes for two touchdowns, which both came on trick plays. Still, he’s reluctant to give Sheehan any pointers.

‘No, I don’t give him any tips,’ Barnes said. ‘He’s bigger than me.’

Perhaps that’s because Sheehan had a receiving touchdown last year. Either way, Barnes is more than happy to take care of what he does best – catching the ball.

Sheehan and Barnes have connected 208 times for 14 touchdowns in their three years together.

Barnes is on track to break almost every significant receiving record in school history. He has broken the university’s record for catches in a game three times in 2009.

Barnes’ season has been one of consistency. He has put up double-digit receptions in five of his seven games, and posted 100-yard receiving games four times.

Not even opposing defenses keying on him can slow him down. Often double and even triple-teamed, Barnes – and Clawson’s staff – simply adjusts.

They put him in the slot, run screen plays and five-yard slants. Then they let Barnes do the rest.

‘I credit the offensive staff completely,’ Barnes said. ‘They move me around a lot. My versatility in the offense has allowed me to still be productive.’

Sheehan said that Barnes’ history at quarterback is what makes him so different from many other receivers in the nation.

‘He always tries to help me with what he’s seeing as a wide receiver,’ Sheehan said. ‘Since he played quarterback, he’s knows what I’m seeing and knows my clock and when it runs out.’

The permanent switch to wide receiver came in Barnes’ redshirt sophomore season. It was a move that put him, in what he calls, his most natural position.

But Barnes didn’t have a preference of position. To him, football has always been about one simple philosophy.

‘Once you get the ball in your hands either way, it’s always you versus them,’ Barnes said. ‘My whole life I’ve just envisioned (football) like I used to play it in the backyard or in the park.’

BCS Breakdown

The always-anticipated initial BCS standings of the 2009 season were released on Sunday. Not surprisingly, Florida, Alabama and Texas made up the top three. And all three still control their own destinies after the Gators and Longhorns escaped with narrow victories over Arkansas and Oklahoma, respectively.

Is it time to panic in Florida? All eyes were looking to the SEC championship game with Alabama as a virtual ‘semifinal’ game en route to the national championship, but the Gators needed a last-second field goal from Caleb Sturgis to dispose of 3-3 Arkansas. Alabama beat the Razorbacks, 35-7, earlier in the year.

With Georgia, South Carolina and Florida State still looming on the schedule, the Gators’ undefeated march to the SEC championship still has major hurdles to clear.

The Texas players and coaches, however, were taking the exact opposite approach. After defeating a decimated Sooner team without Heisman quarterback Sam Bradford, the Longhorns remained optimistic.

Said coach Mack Brown: ‘I don’t think anyone in the locker room ever thought we were going to lose that game.’

Game to Watch: No. 13 Penn State at Michigan

Penn State broke a streak of nine consecutive losses to the Wolverines last year. With Michigan in the midst of one of the worst seasons in program history, the Nittany Lions cruised to a 46-17 victory, scoring 32 unanswered points in the second half.

Now, the Nittany Lions will travel back to ‘The Big House’ and take on a much different team from a year ago. The Wolverines are 5-2 this year, with one of their two losses coming in overtime and the other by two points.

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on October 19, 2009 at 12:00 pm