Matt Barkley: why he deserves a lot of credit.

Years from now when we're talking about how he was the most under-appreciated and one of the most talented Trojans in modern history, this is how the legend will be retold:

A true freshman who was named the starter from the beginning of the season and playing in just his second college game, talked eagerly about wanting to go into the Horseshoe and having all the pressures of a match up with Ohio State, on his shoulders.

Amid 106,000 rabid fans in a sea of red and gray and down by five points midway through the fourth quarter, the Trojans began their drive with Barkley getting sacked and a false-start penalty. Now backed up to their own 5 yard line and facing 2nd and 19 in what had been an all-night long defensive struggle, the Buckeye fans were screaming and jumping for joy.

With just over 6 minutes to go in the game and 95 yards to the endzone, this true freshman did what few quarterbacks let alone a guy that was only playing in his second college game, could do. He drove the Trojans down the field, passing for 55 of them, culminating with a game-winning touchdown and a two-point conversion.

Facing adversity head on, he had gone into Columbus Ohio and had won against 15th ranked Ohio State, showing his toughness in just his second week into his college career.

But that pales in comparison to the challenge he'd face the following year.

In January 2010, his head coach and most of the team's personnel left for the NFL.  Another 5 months later, the NCAA's COI announced what would have otherwise been crippling sanctions, and one recruit - Seantrel Henderson - asked and was granted a release from his letter of intent to attend USC.  With the NCAA's version of free-agency in place, junior and senior football players were allowed to transfer to other FBS programs without having to sit out a season, and a handful left.

Most experts predicted that USC would take years to recover and would immediately be headed downhill.

But there Barkley stood, talking to reporters about how the Trojan Nation would stand tall and hold strong through the roughest patch in decades at USC.  There was never a question about staying at USC despite the severity of sanctions; there was only the hard road forward to Fight On.

And Fight On, Barkley and the Trojans did, to the best season since 2008, leaving critics with their jaws on the floor.

And if he should choose to leave USC early, let no one say that his career was incomplete without a Heisman, because no amount of awards can make up for his actions on and off the field at USC, in its darkest hours.

That's how we'll remember Matt Barkley's career.  Thanks Matt.

---

I had posted a slightly different version of this, as a comment to an ESPN article, earlier.