Behind The Box Score

On a warm summer day in Southern California, head coach Pete Carroll watched as a blonde wunderkid named Matt Barkley took snaps for Mater Dei High School. Carroll, then going into the 2005 season, fresh off a national championship, was witnessing greatness. Only a freshman in high school, Barkley made all the essential passes, but better than any physical attribute he possessed, the cool composed kid from Santa Ana had a skill not evident in most quarterbacks.

 Only at the age of 14, Barkley was presented with a playbook full of complex formations and calls. When the young quarterback would come to the line of scrimmage, he was given three play calls he could audible to. Picking up blitz coverages and man on the outside, Barkley blossomed into what would we know of him now and that is the best true freshman in the country. Winning the Gatorade High School Player of the Year in 2007 only as a junior, Barkley amassed over 3,000 yards and 30 TD’s. After his senior year at Mater Dei, a school that has produced such great names as Matt Leinart and Colt Brennan, Barkley was the odds on favorite to eclipse the greatness of the two names mentioned above, both star quarterbacks in college who combined to throw for over 200 TD’s.

 Committed to the University of Southern California, Barkley entered a tense competition with Aaron Corp and Mitch Mustain, both who were Parade All-Americans and Mustain was the top quarterback in the country in 2006. After months of battles in practice, Barkley was named the starter on Thursday, the first Trojan ever to be named the starter at the beginning of the year. Drawing comparisons to the Atlanta Falcons’ Matt Ryan, Barkley will be tested very early, with a matchup in Columbus against a stout Ohio State defense on September 12th. If Barkley performs anything like he did in high school and in practice, we could see another rout from the Trojans, a solid squad ranked fourth in the AP Preseason Poll. With weapons such as Joe McKnight, Damian Williams, and Ronald Johnson, the transition for Barkley should be much more smooth. If the freshman jitters get to him early, we could see a fifth consecutive season where USC comes into their campaign expected to win a national title only to come up short. Always being noted as a fast starter, the fortunes of Pete Carroll’s squad could change very early depending on the arm of a freshman only 19 years of age.