Yes, he was a preferred walk-on, but was awarded a scholarship after showing his value. Yes, people still call him a walk-on sophomore, junior, etc. because he did walk on to start his career. Just like an undrafted NFL player keeps that ‘title’. Kind of a badge of honor to come from that beginning to having your name called.
When we interviewed him for the Point After last year, found out a little more. He’s a business major, married, his family has a pig farm with 12,000 pigs in Milford. So, Bryson really has his head on straight, comes from a background where hard work and sacrifice is just part of the equation, no matter what you’re doing.
The scholarship thing was a little squirrely. I think he had scholie offers from other schools, but wanted to be at the U. A big part of the situation was coming from a small town that is hard to get to. Milford is really small, so he ran everything from 100M to the mile for track, wrestled, FB, hoops, baseball (if they have it), etc. And then go help out with the farm.
He’s a really tough kid, a team first guy, always looking out for what’s right for the team, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Bryson wanted to make sure there weren’t other transfers or recruits before he would accept a scholie.
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He did have scholarship offers, but he wanted to play on a bigger stage, for bigger rewards so he took the preferred walk on route.
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One article I saw (from several years ago) was that he mostly had FCS scholarship offers. Makes sense he wanted to see what he could do, but as @Ma-ake said, coming from a small school, even with his athletic prowess, just adds risk so may have been recruited by some ‘better’ schools but would have to prove himself at that level.
Imagine Bryson’s path - working the farm since he was like 5, sports, small town hero, bypass the scholies to come to the U, then his number gets called in the freaking Rose Bowl vs Ohio State.
For anybody going from Milford to LA and the Rose Bowl on national TV - it has to be like being abducted by aliens, compared to the nice, peaceful, friendly, very dispersed reality of being in the west desert.
I asked him what advice he had for kids coming behind him, facing long odds. He said just have to believe in yourself and put in the work. He’s pretty much long over the bright lights thing, by now.
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Ok, all. I was wrong. I trust this from Barnes directly. It shocks me that Barnes didn’t get a schollie after the Rose bowl agaimst Ohio St. Or after the Wazzu game.
I had read here which indicated he was on scholarship
For Barnes, it’s his collegiate start. He was a walk-on in 2020 before earning a scholarship. He played in three games in 2021 and four contests in 2022.
A bit surprised it took this long for a 2nd string QB.
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Not sure how much or if the Barnes family continues to be involved in pig farming after the massive Smithfield Foods closure in Beaver County about a year ago.
Somewhat related, about 10 years ago (can’t believe it was that long ago) a fire at the Beaver County pig farms killed about 12,000 pigs. That’s a lot of smoked ham. Although I’m far from a vegetarian, I and most of our society, being mostly urban video screen addicted people, probably consume way to much meat.
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Disappointing. It was said with such cocksure conviction. 
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Btw…although was a bit disappointed Barnes didn’t get a scholarship sooner, that didn’t mean he wasn’t on scholarship last year.
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