Ask the casual college football fan to name the best quarterback in the land, and you’re bound to get a few different answers.
Andrew Luck is the people’s choice, although his stature may be predicated more on his reputation and stature with NFL scouts than anything he’s actually done on the field this year. Houston’s Case Keenum has the video game numbers and Robert Griffin puts up the video game highlights, not to mention there’s some guy up in Boise named Kellen Moore who is pretty good too. Oklahoma is split down the middle with Landry Jones and Brandon Weeden, and Russell Wilson at Wisconsin may have the best combination of stats and quality wins of anyone listed.
Lost in the shuffle though, is a quarterback who just might be playing better than them all: USC’s Matt Barkley.
You do remember Barkley, right? The former No. 1 overall high school recruit in the country and first ever true freshman to start at quarterback for the most famed program in Pac-10 (and now Pac-12) history?. Yeh, well that guy has been out of his mind lately, with 17 touchdowns and just three interceptions in his last five starts, as USC has picked up victories at Oregon and Notre Dame, beaten Washington at the Los Angeles Coliseum and nearly pulled off an upset of Stanford at home.
But because of any number of reasons, the USC signal-caller isn’t getting the love of some others. Maybe it’s because of the NCAA sanctions which hang over this program, maybe it’s the bowl ban, or maybe it’s just America’s apathy for all things Lane Kiffin. Either way, Matt Barkley should be getting more love.
And no one knows that better the folks at USC. They wanted to remind America (and apparently Crystal Ball Run too) that they still have quite the signal-caller hanging out on their campus, and that when you cast your Heisman/Water Camp/Maxwell or Wuerffel (huh?) Award ballot, Barkley’s name is one you need to remember.
They even thought nicely enough to send along this little video to us. Enjoy
