Matt Barkley Practices

From ESPN:

Freshman quarterback Matt Barkley participated in No. 3 Southern California’s light practice Monday, but didn’t do any throwing drills while resting his sore shoulder.
Barkley
Safety Taylor Mays skipped practice to rest his injured right knee.
Barkley bruised his right shoulder during last weekend’s 18-15 victory at Ohio State, and he was limited to handing off Monday. Sophomore Aaron Corp, who lost the starting job to Barkley in training camp, took snaps with the first-team offense.

If I’m Peter Carroll I sit Matt Barkley this week. New coach or not, I tend to think that Aaron Corp can handle Washington this week. No need to risk Barkley injuring himself further in this type of game.

But while we’re on the subject, how impressive has the freshman been in his first two career starts? While the numbers may not necessarily be there (only 60% completion rate and one touchdown pass), he’s shown that he has tremendous poise and knowledge that has come to be expected of USC quarterbacks. All you had to watch was that final drive on Saturday night to see that Barkley has something special.

Numbers in college football can be easily manufactured. Late game moxie and smarts can’t be. Barkley has the latter, the numbers will come soon enough.

Don’t look now, but we are about to watch yet another special USC quarterback for a few years to come.

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