SWISS ARMY KNIFE: How Justin Barron developed the versatility to play rover in 3-3-5
J
ustin Barron’s transition from a two-way athlete to full-time safety his freshman year at Syracuse didn’t involve much playing time. But midway through the 2020 season, a fumbled field goal snap led head coach Dino Babers to search for a backup holder.
Barron seized the opportunity, telling Babers he had the hands for the position — the head coach just needed to give him a chance.
“I just went up to him and was like, ‘coach, just let me do something,’ because I wasn’t playing much that year as a receiver,” Barron said. “I just wanted a way to get on the field.”
While his soft hands and prior special teams experience won Barron the backup role, kicker Andre Szmyt had a hard time accepting a non-specialist as his holder, Babers said. The two had limited practice time together.
“I said, ‘Andre, you understand that there are people on this team that have better hands than the punter,’” Babers said.
In his senior year, Szmyt let Babers pick the team’s holder. Without hesitation, he chose Barron, who successfully held every field goal last season.
But, his versatility isn’t confined to special teams. Barron has played at every level of the defense during his football career and he’ll continue to circulate the Syracuse secondary as its starting “rover,” an extra defensive back that plays all over the field.
A two-way starter all four years of high school, Barron was recruited as an “athlete.” He garnered Division-I offers as a tight end, wide receiver, linebacker and safety. While he didn’t receive offers for the positions, he also played as a long snapper and holder in high school. At each school he attended, he played both ways at all times.
At Kingswood Oxford (Conn.) High School, Barron played running back, receiver and safety on varsity as an 8th grader and freshman. As a sophomore at Lawrence Academy (Mass.), he helped the team go from 6-2 and fifth in the Independent League a year prior to 9-0 and a first-place finish.
The talent in their area just wasn’t challenging enough, his father Jason said, so Barron committed to Suffield Academy in Connecticut. The elevated level of play didn’t slow him down. Barron’s senior year culminated in another perfect season and title run.
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There wasn’t much depth, or many specialists, in the Central New England League where Suffield Academy competed. Suffield Academy head coach Drew Gamere said all the best players played two ways, but Barron played three. Gamere didn’t ask Barron to play special teams – he did it purely out of necessity, just like at Syracuse.
Gamere said there were games when Barron never came off the field. He played slot receiver, wide receiver, linebacker, safety, long snapper, holder and even took some kickoffs and kick returns. Long snappers are almost exclusively specialists or centers, but Gamere said Barron didn’t miss a single snap.
Barron racked up over 500 yards receiving, 35-plus tackles, two interceptions and at least four pass deflections in each of his two seasons. During the last play of his high school career, Barron went up to Gamere and said he had his man on a hitch-and-go.
“I don’t listen to players a lot, but he’s one that’s almost like a coach on the field,” Gamere said. “He caught a 35-yard touchdown to seal the deal in the championship.”
Barron rarely asked for the ball, but he understood the defense and recognized that he had the mismatch.
“His versatility is as good as anyone I’ve been around,” Gamere said.
In elementary school, Barron was one of the biggest and fastest kids on the field, so he was inserted at nose tackle to blow past interior linemen. On offense, he played fullback, clearing rushing lanes with superior power and speed.
In middle school, Jason said nobody could throw the ball, so Barron stepped in at running back and wildcat quarterback, “taking the direct snap and running all over the place.” Defensively, he played linebacker and started playing his current position, hybrid safety.
“I think you just gotta put him in positions where he can make plays,” Gamere said. “He’s a guy that could certainly fill the box on run downs and be physical in that sense, and when you’re seeing teams that are throwing the ball, he can take out a team’s best receiver but also can cover a ton of ground playing safety.”
Barron’s success attracted a slew of distinctive college options, including a defensive offer from Michigan and a tight end offer from Boston College. In the end, Barron chose Syracuse because he felt it gave him the best chance to play soon and consistently, no matter the position. He said the program felt like home.
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Syracuse recruited him as an athlete, so his position wasn’t determined. Jason, who was a wide receiver at UConn in the 90’s, wanted Barron to play offense in college. But once he heard how passionately Barron spoke about SU, it reminded him of another conversation from years prior.
Barron’s versatile history on both sides of the ball made him an obvious choice to be SU’s rover under Rocky Long’s 3-3-5 and have signal-caller duties. On Tuesday, Syracuse announced that Barron will also be one of the team’s six captains. With his new leadership role on the team, Barron will need to completely understand Syracuse’s defense as well as the opposing offense.
“Last year I was kind of just sitting back and doing my job,” Barron said. “I had Garrett (Williams), I had Mikel (Jones) and I could feel comfortable doing that because I knew those guys were going to do their job and be vocal. Now that they’re gone, I need to be the guy. The younger guys need me to step up.”
Last season, Barron took at least 132 snaps in the box, in the slot and over the top, with 47% coming in the box, according to Pro Football Focus. This year, his positional snap count could be more evenly split with the addition of Long and loss of starting safety Ja’Had Carter.
The basis of Long’s defense is to cause confusion with his extra defensive backs, Gonzales said. Based on Barron’s training camp, he figures to be at the center of the deception.
Tony White coached and played under Long, so their schemes are similar. But Long has a reputation for being especially creative, and Barron’s been the beneficiary during camp, picking off Shrader multiple times.
“You guys are gonna see some stuff that you haven’t really seen from us before,” Barron said.
Photo courtesy of SU Athletics