J.T. Barrett threw for three touchdowns and ran for two in No. 14 Ohio State's 49-37 win over No. 8 Michigan State. (1:44)

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- If they weren't reading last rites on Ohio State's playoff chances when Braxton Miller injured his shoulder in the preseason, they certainly were after an ugly home loss to Virginia Tech the second week of the season.

The only problem with that was nobody knew at the time the guy waiting in Miller's shadow would be every bit as good.

Ready or not, Ohio State redshirt freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett officially welcomed himself to stardom Saturday night with a surgical, five-touchdown performance against No. 8 Michigan State in a runaway 49-37 victory that thrust the Buckeyes squarely back into the playoff race.

"Some people probably forgot about us," Barrett said. "We just kept working and kept believing."

Now here they are, and with four of the top 10 teams losing Saturday, the No. 14 Buckeyes are poised to make a big jump when the new College Football Playoff rankings are released Tuesday night. Not only that, but they exorcised the demons from their bitter loss to Michigan State in last year's Big Ten championship game and now have a clear path in front of them to this year's Big Ten championship game.

J.T. Barrett had 386 yards of total offense and five touchdowns against Michigan State. Allen Kee/ESPN Images

"I'm glad we got to play in prime time. 'GameDay' was here," Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said in doing some subtle playoff lobbying. "I'm glad everybody got to see the Ohio State Buckeyes because this is a different Buckeye team than it was early in the season."

A different team with a different quarterback.

Barrett completed just nine passes and threw three interceptions in the 35-21 loss to Virginia Tech back on Sept. 6. Against the Spartans, who entered the game ranked fifth nationally in total defense, he racked up 386 yards of total offense, threw three touchdown passes, rushed for two more and looked very much like he was the two-time defending Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year.

Earlier this week, Michigan State linebacker Taiwan Jones raised a few eyebrows when he said Barrett was a better passer than Miller and was a "way better quarterback." Miller later took to Twitter to fire back.

If you look at the numbers, Barrett is actually ahead of Miller's pace from the past season. Barrett has already thrown 26 touchdown passes in nine games and also has eight rushing touchdowns. That's compared to 24 touchdown passes and 12 rushing touchdowns by Miller all of last season. Barrett has 2,738 total yards through nine games. Miller finished with 3,162 total yards last season.

Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi wasn't about to get into the inevitable comparison between the two. But after watching Barrett do a number on his proud defense, Narduzzi made it clear what he thinks of the Buckeyes' newest star.

"That guy made about every shot he could," Narduzzi said. "He threw the seven route on target. He hadn't shown he could do that really consistently. I've got a lot of respect for him. He's a great football player, and he played big in a big game. He didn't throw off the mark at all. He put it right there where their guys were about to make the catches. He's a heck of a quarterback."

And he's only going to get better, which could make for an interesting decision for Meyer when Miller returns next season.

Meyer will deal with that dilemma (a good one to have) next season. Right now, he's got a football team playing its best football and a first-year quarterback setting the tone.

"I don't even think of him as a freshman. He's a great leader, one of the best leaders I've ever been around," Ohio State center Jacoby Boren said. "A guy like that makes you want to play even harder than you can. He's a great guy, great kid and great leader and pushes everyone to be better than what they are."

Some of the deep throws Barrett made against the Spartans were about as gorgeous as you're going to see. He connected with speedy Devin Smith six times for 129 yards, and the Buckeyes felt coming in that they would have opportunities for big plays down the field against Michigan State's press coverage.

"We didn't want to come in here and be conservative," said Barrett, who was 16-of-26 for 300 yards and didn't throw an interception. "We wanted to go out swinging. That's how we approached this game."

As for the connection with Smith, Barrett joked, "I told him to go run really fast, and I will throw you the ball. That was our conversation."

The conversation the college football world will be having, if the Buckeyes keep winning, is whether they're playoff-worthy, even with the baggage of that Virginia Tech loss.

Leave it to Barrett to shed the best perspective on where the Buckeyes go from here.

"We're just focusing on each other and not worrying about things outside our football program," he said. "Knowing that if we play for each other and everybody does their jobs, we're going to be all right at the end of the day."

Maybe we should have known that all along.