J.T. Barrett won't ever get to play a Red River Rivalry game in the Cotton Bowl, so he'll have to settle for the next best thing: a road game at Oklahoma.

The Texas native rooted for the Longhorns when he was a kid. He wanted to be the quarterback Texas took in its 2013 recruiting class, and attended the 2011 OU-Texas game as a UT recruit. Ohio State's road trip to Norman this week means a little bit more to Barrett than most Buckeyes.

"He had aspirations of being a Longhorn and that didn't come true, so this is probably the closest thing to playing that game, you know?" said Jim Garfield, Barrett's coach at S. H. Rider High School. "It's huge for him."

Garfield considers this almost a homecoming game for Barrett. He grew up in Wichita Falls, a city in North Texas located just 140 miles south of Norman. Barrett grew up around a lot of Sooners fans, but wanted to be the next Vince Young.

As a Class of 2013 recruit, J.T. Barrett was the No. 11 dual-threat QB in the class. Tom Hauck for Student Sports

"J.T.'s a unique individual. He holds his cards to his chest pretty good," Garfield said. "But you could tell, growing up, he was a big Texas fan."

In the spring of 2012, Texas coaches were debating between offering either Wichita Falls' Barrett or Whitewright's Tyrone Swoopes. Garfield knew Texas assistant Darrell Wyatt, Barrett's lead recruiter, was sold on Barrett and impressed by the leadership qualities that have now helped him go 17-2 as the Buckeyes' starter.

"I think J.T. would be the first to admit that I think early in the recruiting process, had the University of Texas offered him, he probably would have committed to them," then-Ohio State offensive coordinator Tom Herman told Cleveland.com in 2014. "But they didn't."

The Longhorns decided they had to take Swoopes, the small-town star with the big body (6-foot-5, 230 pounds), big arm and big potential. He was the one who evoked comparisons to Young. Five days after he received his offer in February 2012, Swoopes committed to Texas. And yet, Barrett still considered taking a junior day visit to Texas despite Swoopes' pledge.

What if Texas could've had both? Would Barrett have agreed to join Swoopes in the class had he been offered? Garfield has no doubt.

"Oh yeah," he said. "When we'd talk about Ohio State, he'd say, 'I don't care. They can bring King Kong in here. I'm gonna go get the starting spot.' That's the kind of mentality J.T. had through the whole thing. If they would've double-offered him and Swoopes, he would've had the same thought: I don't care who it is, I'm gonna go compete and take the starting spot."

"I think that would've been great," Swoopes said this week of the idea of playing with Barrett. "I like J.T. a lot. Being able to play with him would've been fun."

But Texas wasn't signing two quarterbacks. Barrett canceled his junior day trip five days after Swoopes' pledge because he knew the offer wasn't coming.

Fortunately, the new offensive coordinator at Ohio State was interested. Herman had been on the job for only a few months when he landed a commitment from Barrett in April 2012.

Herman took a bit of a risk. He accepted a commitment before actually seeing Barrett throw in person. But he knew LSU was pushing Barrett hard for a pledge, and Herman didn't want to wait too long and lose the kid. Once he picked Ohio State, Barrett vowed he was completely done with recruiting. Garfield said he never got the sense Barrett was disappointed things didn't work out with Texas. But he never forgot it.

"He had quite a few offers, but I think the one from Texas that he didn't get, that kind of stoked his coals, so to speak," Garfield said.

Even during the highest highs of his Ohio State career, that snub was still on Barrett's mind. In the locker room after the Buckeyes' national championship win over Oregon in January 2014, Barrett was asked if the Longhorns made a mistake by not offering him. "Shoot, you can tell 'em that," he said. "I don't need to tell 'em that. They saw the film. Talk to Mack Brown."

Tyrone Swoopes never became Vince Young but has found a nice role alongside Shane Buechele in the 18-wheeler package. Kevin Jairaj/USA Today Sports

Not that Barrett would change a thing. Everything has worked out for him in Columbus. Swoopes is doing OK these days, too, having found success in his "18-wheeler" power run package. Texas seems to have finally found its long-term answer at QB in Shane Buechele.

And Barrett still gets his shot at the Sooners.

"Being here at Ohio State, those are the type of games you play for -- big-time games against a great opponent at their place on the road," Barrett said Saturday. "It's exciting. That's why you go to Ohio State."

When Barrett takes the field Saturday night, Garfield says a strong Wichita Falls contingent will be in the stands rooting him on. Garfield is now the head coach at Elgin (Texas) High but says he still talks to Barrett on a weekly basis. He knows facing Oklahoma was sort of a boyhood dream for his former quarterback.

And Barrett knows, in the end, he picked the right school and the right rivalry.

"I can tell you one thing: It's not like Ohio State and That Team Up North," he said.