DaytonDailyNews.com

CLAYTON — C.J. Barnett envisioned himself excelling as a quarterback at Northmont High School.

Think again.

"I told him he might be a (defensive back) on Saturdays," Thunderbolts coach Lance Schneider said Monday. "I was right."

Barnett has been a fixture as a lock-down cornerback for Northmont the past two seasons. Big and fast, plenty of BCS colleges took notice, including Ohio State.

The junior verbally committed to OSU on Sunday. He joins Coldwater linebacker Adam Homan as area juniors in OSU's class of '09 recruits.

Ironically, for a program known for its offensive fireworks, Barnett is the third recent defensive player headed to a BCS school. He'll join Northmont alums Kurt Coleman, a secondary starter for the Buckeyes, and lineman Nii Adjei Oninku at Kentucky.

"Now, I like playing defense," said Barnett, a QB/DB as a freshman. "It's so much fun hitting people, but I still do want the chance to make some plays."

He'll likely get that chance next season. But he's most effective playing shutdown. That's what he did so effectively last fall.

The 6-foot-1, 180-pounder has 4.4-second speed in the 40-yard dash and a long and lanky frame, just the kind of secondary tools colleges savor.

"We put him on everybody's best wideout, and he put them out of the game," Schneider said.

"It's a lot easier to be a scholarship kid on that side of the ball. It takes that special guy on offense to really stand out on tape.

"We try to get our best athletes on defense whenever we can. Obviously, this shows that we have."

It also didn't hurt that Barnett has a 4.0 grade-point average. He's received just two B's at Northmont, both in scholarship trigonometry and precalculus.

OSU offered him last December, but he waited to commit until meeting coach Jim Tressel this past weekend. Miami (Fla.) also offered him.

"The big picture for me is I want to play in the NFL," Barnett said. "That's my big dream.

"I was hoping to get to college and however I got there, I didn't mind. I've been blessed and fortunate to go to Ohio State. I'm really happy."

Contact this reporter at 225-2381

or mpendleton@DaytonDailyNews.com.