Ricky Barber: Things I Know

Life was good for Western Kentucky defensive tackle Ricky Barber as the calendar flipped to 2021. The Louisville, Kentucky, product had started every game the previous year as a redshirt freshman—making 51 tackles and winning Freshman All-America recognition from the Football Writers Association of America. Then a monkey wrench popped into the equation. Kenny Martin, who had recruited Barber to Western Kentucky and had been his position coach, left in February to join Gus Malzahn’s new staff at UCF. Barber decided to take stock of his situation—and ultimately followed Martin to Orlando. Almost three seasons later, he’s glad he did. Martin has started 28 games for the Knights—and American Athletic Conference coaches voted him a first-team all-league lineman in 2022. His teammates thought enough of the 6-3, 295-pound redshirt senior to vote him a UCF captain for 2023 as the Knights began play in the Big 12 Conference. Here is his story:

I was born in Chicago, but we moved to Louisville when I was 4 or 5 years old. My dad was a big U of L (Louisville) fan. We watched all their basketball and football games, went to some games.

When I was younger, I did not watch football, I watched basketball. I was a big Oklahoma City Thunder fan when Kevin Durant was there—that was my team.

I had played basketball my whole life. I was pretty decent in basketball, but I was too short to play at this level. I never played football until my freshman year of high school. My high school football coach kept begging me to come out and try football. I really didn’t want to, but I finally decided to give it a try.

I played everywhere in football in the beginning--they kept bouncing me around. I played a little offensive line, some linebacker, defensive tackle, defensive end, kind of everywhere. 

In the beginning I did not really know what I was doing. Then my sophomore year I started making plays, like sacks in the end zone and safeties and blocking punts. I started thinking maybe I’m pretty good. I got my first (scholarship) offer May 3 of my sophomore year from Cincinnati. Then Purdue called the next day, and so I felt pretty good.

It got to commitment time after my junior year, but I had nowhere to go. All the schools had filled their spots. Western Kentucky had been kind of interested and they told me, “Just come down and visit.” (Current UCF defensive tackle coach) Kenny Martin recruited me there and he ended up my position coach, too. They kept telling me to come to campus and I would probably get an offer. So, I went to camp at Western Kentucky that summer, and I had a really good day. But I went into my senior season with no real offers. They (Western Kentucky) invited me to their home opener, and they offered me--and I committed two days later.

I played a little my first year at Western Kentucky and then my second season (2020) I started every game. The next year I went through spring ball at WKU, and I wanted to stay there. But Coach Martin left and went to UCF when Coach (Gus) Malzahn was hired, and I decided to see what was out there for me. I liked the way Coach Martin had coached me and he convinced me to come to UCF. 

When I got to UCF I saw that the speed of the game was a lot faster than in Conference USA. When I was at Western Kentucky, I thought the linemen were scrappy, but here everyone was faster. You had to be an athlete to play in this league (the American Athletic Conference). 

Now the linemen in the Big 12 are bigger, and a lot of teams run stretch. It’s a way more physical league, and these teams have bigger guys who can move. Coming into the season I knew I needed to get my pass rush where it needed to be. I needed to get a little heavier and a little stronger at the same time.

The Baylor game left a sour taste in our mouths, and it just showed us we need to finish. At Kansas State we were in the game until the end of the third period, beginning of the fourth. Everybody just needs to do their job for 60 minutes and finish. If we do that, we can be a good team. I feel like the Big 12 is about any given Saturday—anybody can beat anybody. But you’ve got to be able to finish.

The scouting report on me would say he’s a guy you gotta pay attention to the whole game, maybe double team him on the pass rush. He’s strong and stout in the run game, he plays the run well and pass rushes even better.

As far as who I would thank for helping me get where I am, I would start with God—you can’t do anything without Him. Then my mom—she’s my biggest hero--my parents, my high school coach. Coach Martin and I have been together for five years now.

I want to play football as long as I can. After that I want to go back to school, get my master’s degree in psychology and be a mental health therapist and see where that takes me.

In my free time I’m at my house, playing video games, hanging with my two dogs. Those two are a handful. I like to have my teammates come over and throw something on the grill. All our guys on the defensive line are tight--those guys make me happy. And we call (UCF safety) Quadric Bullard an honorary defensive tackle—because he shows up.

I’ll never forget all the times Coach Malzahn would say, “Guys, we’ve got to come together.” He put his fingers and hands together just like that. You mention that to anybody on the team and they’ll know exactly what you’re talking about.