OT - Matt Barkley to return for senior season
http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncf/story/_/id/7380760/matt-barkley-usc-…
I'm pretty surprised. He's a top 10 pick and is returning to a team with limited scholarships.
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:13 PM ^
Surprised by this I am.
December 22nd, 2011 at 5:47 PM ^
Yes, mmmhummm.
/yoda voice
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:16 PM ^
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:26 PM ^
with 40 million bucks in his pocket he would have no problem ordering one of those.
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:45 PM ^
There is always the risk of injury, I guess, but barring that and a good year, he will likely be the top QB come next year's draft. He has a pretty strong build so I think he'll be ok, injury wise.
December 22nd, 2011 at 5:04 PM ^
He won't have Andrew Luck in front of him next year. If things turn out well, he may end up gaining a degree and still sign a contract for enough money to make up for one year of lost earnings.
December 22nd, 2011 at 5:18 PM ^
or three
December 23rd, 2011 at 10:11 AM ^
No rookies are getting that much anymore.
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:17 PM ^
USC could very well be a national championship contender next year. That team is loaded and has one more year before sanctions will really be felt.
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:17 PM ^
What an attention whore.
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:19 PM ^
Andy Staples says that it was Lane Kiffens idea and that Barkley is not the attention type. I remember his recruiting being over very early and never seemed to be a flashy type.
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:20 PM ^
I have a strong dislike for USC, but I'm always impressed when projected high draft picks decide to stay for their senior season.
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:35 PM ^
USC is LA's professional football team.
December 22nd, 2011 at 5:28 PM ^
They breaking bread...
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:21 PM ^
This is a swift kick to the marble sack in either Washington or Miami. One was going to get Griffin and the other Barkley.
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:21 PM ^
I have to give him credit here. I don't know exactly what his reasons for staying are, but he has gone through hell to finish out his career/education at the place he always dreamed of playing.
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:23 PM ^
A chance at a national title and an actual BCS bowl for him. Considering he stuck with them after the sanctions came down..i think it would be nice for him to get to a BCS bowl game. By all accounts he seems like a real stand up kid and hasn't complained one bit about not being able to go to a bowl game these last 2 yrs.
However, in a perfect world he would go to the BCS and usc would not.
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:25 PM ^
SC returns 4 starters on the offensive line, the best wide receiver tandem in the country, a thousand yard rusher who averaged just shy of 7 ypc (and who like Fitz only emerged late in the year), and 8 starters on defense.
And that is after two guys decided to go pro early.
The sanctions are going to be brutal 3-5 years from now, but the limited scholarships aren't going to be any problem for the team Barkley's coming back to play on.
December 22nd, 2011 at 5:28 PM ^
This is exactly right. SC is going to be GOOD next year, like national championship good. I don't know who on their schedule will be able to hang. 2013 might hurt for SC considering thye'll lose all the guys who will be seniors plus a handful of top juniors like Robert Woods, but 2012 will be big for them.
As much as I hate SC, I almost hope they go undefeated because I don't want to see them in the Rose Bowl.
December 22nd, 2011 at 7:05 PM ^
But if SC is unbeaten and UM is unbeaten...
December 22nd, 2011 at 7:40 PM ^
They're in trouble down the road, but for 2012 that is one scary team. They were playing as well as anyone in the country toward the end of the season.
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:26 PM ^
Impressive stuff
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:27 PM ^
He's a more talented, less vocal Tim Tebow. Love the kid. You heard it here first...UM vs USC in the BCS Championship next year. Of course the good guys win...
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:31 PM ^
He would've been the second or third QB picked this year.
He'll be the second picked next year, too!
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:33 PM ^
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:42 PM ^
He'll be good in the NFL, he's a very accurate passer, makes good decisions, and is very efficient with the ball, but they did have him throw around 100 times more this year than before. USCs offense was basically an AQ version of Houston this season.
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:33 PM ^
Glad he's staying, good to see more and more kids doing that lately. Seems like it's only the qbs waiting to get drafted, though. Kiper kept going on and on about how Barkleys top receiver and LT are getting drafted early on TV. Better to develop a little more in college than to have some crappy team make a tackling dummy out of you like St. Louis did with Bradford I say.
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:34 PM ^
This is also bad news for Notre Dame. They only beat SC last year whe Barkley was out and as much as I despise SC I always pull for them to beat Notre Dame.
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:37 PM ^
Maybe he wants to go to more than one bowl in his career
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:49 PM ^
I'm not a fan of USC at all, but I have immense respect for Barkley. Great player, and seems like a great kid. Went to the school he always dreamed of going to, and stayed there through its darkest hour. Stayed positive, did everything the right way, and was a great player. Now he's staying to finish off his degree and reap his benefits. Good for him.
December 22nd, 2011 at 5:09 PM ^
If I was a college qb i'd stay in college instead of bolting for the NFL. Cfb is just better than the NFL. Would I want to play in front of a half empty NFL stadium or a packed College stadium?
December 22nd, 2011 at 5:08 PM ^
If I was a college qb i'd stay in college instead of bolting for the NFL. Cfb is just better than the NFL. Would I want to play in front of a half empty NFL stadium or a packed College stadium?
December 22nd, 2011 at 5:11 PM ^
The money would be nice, but you'd get the same money after the next season unless you really screw up.
December 22nd, 2011 at 5:19 PM ^
UCLA can't catch a break, can they? Maybe this year they can lose by fewer than 4 touchdowns.
December 22nd, 2011 at 5:33 PM ^
Kind've surprising, but I can certainly see where he's coming from, not being able to go to bowl games 2/3 years. Him coming back gives USC a legit shot at the Rose Bowl next year.
December 22nd, 2011 at 5:52 PM ^
Rose Bowl? They've got a legit shot at the MNC next year. I don't know who's going to beat them.
December 22nd, 2011 at 5:57 PM ^
USC manages to lose one game they shouldn't almost every year
December 22nd, 2011 at 5:58 PM ^
I am NOT a fan of USC at all but I think Matt deserves to go to a bowl game. He played through other people's shit and stuck through it, good for him.
December 22nd, 2011 at 6:28 PM ^
The pac 12 is weak as fuck. If we were in their conference we could beat almost every team.
December 22nd, 2011 at 7:42 PM ^
We've won 2 of our last 9 games against current Pac 12 opponents, with losses coming to a 6-6 UCLA team, an 8-4 Washington team, an 8-5 Oregon team, and good teams from Utah, Oregon, and USC (twice).
The only wins came against a 5-6 Utah team that we pummeled 10-7 and against a 7-6 Washington team that we needed a ridiculously dumb penalty and a last second field goal to beat.
Not to mention things like Bo's Rose Bowl record.
I'd much rather play in the SEC if it came down to switching leagues.
December 22nd, 2011 at 7:59 PM ^
Although I agree with your gripe of his post, I don't agree with why. Sure, we're 2-7 in our last 9, but 4 of those losses were very legit, two very good USC games in Rose Bowls, Oregon with Dennis Dixon and a Utah team that went undefeated and beat Alabama. The others were against still solid teams, played on the West Coast. In fact, aren't we 2-2 in those games at home? That makes it different.
Also, that poster was probably referring to how crappy the bottom half of the Pac-12 is, and he's right. Washington St, Oregon St. (now), ASU, Arizona, Colorado, UCLA and kind of Utah and Cal. There are only 4 decent teams in the Pac-12 right now. Not that the Big Ten is a murderer's row, but if we played a Pac-12 schedule instead, we'd do at least as good but probably better.
December 22nd, 2011 at 8:06 PM ^
I don't really agree with the other guy, but I also think you're reaching to prove your point. Most of those games were long enough ago that they don't have much relevance to today's Michigan or Pac-X.
December 22nd, 2011 at 7:12 PM ^
This is great. Michigan-USC in the National Championship game!
December 22nd, 2011 at 8:45 PM ^
How about some props to what Lane Kiffin has going with that program? A guy in Barkley's position isn't going to look back if he doesn't think the coaching is satisfactory and his game would grow.
To everyone that assumes that the program will slide during the scholarship reduction years, Kiffin and company have it covered. USC has been loading numbers and depth. Each position has been meticulously planned and considered as far as scholarship allotment. Kiffin and Haden sat down and decided to forego the scholarship reductions until the back end of the probation years. It was brilliant because they knew that guys would take off right away the first year and the numbers would be way down anyways. So you have all these open spots: time now to get young with full scholarship allotments for a couple years.
They always get elite talent. Now they are loaded, young and deep. They'll fill in the pieces during the reduction years and they just have to avoid whiffing on guys. No question it puts immense pressure on the staff to not take on any busts. You'll see depth suffer maybe in about 2015, when these smaller classes mature. But that will be on the backside of likely top 10 teams 4 seasons in a row. The chain of yearly first round draft picks will not be broken. They elected to stay very talented and not take a break.
Had they accepted the reductions immediately, they would be waiting until 2015 at the earliest to be young, talented and deep. You can't have 5 years in the hole these days and count on emerging from it still viable. What they did and are doing is brilliant.
Think about it from a recruiting angle. The next few years, your scholarship offers have a massive value to recruits like never before. They aren't pursing just anybody with so few to give. The recruits won't be walking into a program that is stripped but one that is free to compete for championships.