Position Change Leads to Barnes’ Success
After watching Waynesburg’s first five games this season, it’s clear why head coach Rick Shepas recruited Kevin Barnes Jr. to play football at Waynesburg.
The 6-1, 200 pound junior wide receiver has caught 25 balls for 386 yards and five scores in his first five starts for the Yellow Jackets. The combination of his speed, size and aggressiveness has turned Barnes into an integral part of the offense and reminds coaches of a great former Waynesburg wide receiver.
“He’s a playmaker. In some way he reminds us of Andrew English,” Shepas said. “We like the way he leaps and he plays like a young kid in the school yard. He loves to play and likes to make plays.”
Coming out of Kittanning High School, Barnes was recruited to play quarterback–the position he played when he was first-team all-Allegheny Conference as a senior in 2012. Barnes completed 104 of 173 pass attempts for 1,195 yards and 12 touchdowns while rushing for 940 yards and six touchdowns.
“In high school I was a running quarterback,” Barnes said. “Throwing was my second option most of the time. I was our biggest playmaker, so I did what I wanted back then.”
Barnes said he didn’t know what he was getting himself into when he came to play quarterback his freshman year at Waynesburg because his senior year in high school was his only year he played the position.
“I didn’t have the reads necessary to stand in the pocket and throw the ball,” Barnes said. “I didn’t know how to progress through my receivers, so when I came to Waynesburg my problem was not knowing the routes and where people were going to be and not knowing what was going on.”
Graduate assistant for tight ends and receivers, Zac Capan, who played with Barnes in 2013 and 2014–isn’t surprised at the success Barnes is having this season.
“I immediately knew that Kevin could be a star on the team as a freshman coming in,” Capan said. “You can tell by how a guy runs that this guy is a serious athlete.”
In spring practice his freshman year, Barnes started to transition more to wide receiver and made the full transition in camp the next season.
“We felt that if he was playing the quarterback position he wouldn’t have as many playmakers around him, which would put more pressure on him,” Shepas said. “For us to have the opportunity to recruit [freshman quarterback] Jake [Dougherty], him be our number one guy we’re going after, get him and have Kevin as a playmaker around him is going to be a plus down the road.”
Last season, Barnes appeared in six games recording two catches for 13 yards. He had the opportunity to sit behind two of the best wide receivers in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference last season in Bernie Thompson and Andrew English.
“From Bernie [Thompson] I learned hard work, to be out on the field with a purpose, to run my routes hard and listen to the coaches,” Barnes said. “From Drew [English] I learned to go up and get the ball and make plays. He always made plays when it counted, and he was a red zone threat, which I think I am too.”
Barnes admits he was a lazy football player in high school and early in his career at Waynesburg, but heading into spring football his sophomore year he changed that.
“I went to spring ball saying that I was going to be one of the guys this year because Bernie and Drew were gone,” Barnes said. “I hit the gym a lot harder over the summer; I started lifting more weights and running after practice and doing things I normally wouldn’t have done. I used to be a pretty lazy player. I saw my opportunity to make the team better. I just thought, ‘this is my chance, why not take it all on?'”
When Capan was a teammate of Barnes’ he knew Barnes needed to take the game more seriously.
“Coming from high school to college you can’t just walk in and expect to be great,” Capan said. “You need to put the work in and study more, and I think he’s done that now. That’s why he’s having the season that he is. I always knew the type of athlete he was, but now he’s putting it all together. I’m always in Kevin’s ear about how great of a player he can be.”
Through five games, Barnes has caught at least four passes for 70 yards in four of five games while scoring a touchdown in all five games. He attributes his success thus far to his chemistry with Dougherty.
“In the summer, since Jake and I live pretty close to each other, we were able to work out together two or three days a week,” Barnes said. “For us, I think it’s a comfortability thing. We ran our routes and I showed him what routes we run and I gave him some signals in the summer.”
Barnes said he wants to continue his consistency for the rest of the season and for the rest of his career at Waynesburg.