Michigan TE AJ Barner on his future, bringing 'the juice,' Ohio State win and chasing championships

Motörhead’s tune, ‘The Game’ — WWE superstar Triple H’s theme song — says, “It’s all about pain and who’s gonna make it.” During spring practices, fall camp and Tuesdays during the season, the Michigan football team goes through its ‘Beat Ohio’ period, which features a 9-on-7 drill and music blasting. Sometimes, ‘The Game’ comes over the speakers.

Before a fourth-and-short during Michigan’s 30-24 win over Ohio State (in which the Wolverines went 3-for-3 on fourth down and won the rushing battle), senior tight end AJ Barner sang, ‘It’s time to play the game!’ The hard work, the pain, that the Wolverines endured for since January, preparing for the Buckeyes, paid off during Saturday’s victory. Barner was one of the team’s ignitors.

“It says, ‘it’s time to play the game,’ and we played ‘The Game’ this weekend, so it kind of went hand in hand with that,” Barner said.

“Big game, gotta bring energy, just the way the tight ends play the game and the way I do. Gotta bring the juice.”

The first-year Wolverine who transferred in from Indiana and has made a significant impact believes the way Michigan prepares for Ohio State on a daily basis throughout the year made a big impact. That was especially apparent on Michigan’s seven-minute field-goal-scoring drive that pushed its lead to six points with just over a minute to go. The Wolverines grinded it out on the ground.

“It feels really good,” Barner said. “Just to be able to run the ball and they kinda know that you’re going to have to run the ball. It’s kinda, we’re gonna run the ball and you’re going to have to try to stop it. I think all of us would’ve liked to finish it out there and been able to get that last first down, but we were going to take a lot of time off the clock and the defense was able to make big plays.

“The ‘Beat Ohio’ drill is just a drill about running the ball, and the last drive was about running the ball. It’s a game that we’re focused on 365 days out of the year. We played this game the past weekend, and we’re extremely focused on the next couple games, but at the same time, we know that we’ve got them in 300-and-whatever days again, so we’re working to beat them again next time.”

Barner has hauled in 21 catches for a career-high 236 yards and 1 touchdown this season. Against Ohio State, he made 2 catches for 25 yards, including a key 18-yard pickup that set up a go-ahead touchdown on the next play.

Indiana just fired its coach and is searching for a new one. The Wolverines are set to play Iowa this weekend and pushing for a national championship. With that, Barner is excited about where he’s at.

“It’s been cool, because all the goals we’ve laid out for us are starting to take shape,” the Michigan tight end said. “Obviously, we have a ton of work to do, but a lot of the reasons why I came here are left in front of us, so it’s extremely exciting.”

The Wolverines won their biggest game of the season last week but say they’re refocused on the task at hand. It’s a win-and-in situation.

“With how big of a game it was last week, there can be some challenges to that, but at the end of the day, we’re playing for a Big Ten championship trophy and a College Football Playoff berth,” Barner noted. “So, if you can’t get motivated to play in that, then we wouldn’t have made it this far. I think we’ll be up to the challenge, and can’t wait for it.”

Michigan honored its seniors — including Barner — before the Ohio State game, but he still has the opportunity to return with another year of eligibility. At this moment, he’s undecided on what he’ll do.

“Probably sometime soon,” Barner said of when his choice will be made. “But yeah, I definitely thought about that a little bit, [the possibility of] that being my last game there. I’ll make those decisions as the season winds down. But my main focus is whatever I can do to help us win the next three games — and this game next up, most importantly.”