From The Left Coast…

With all the things going on in LA LA Land these days, it would be understandable that college football would have slipped to the back of people’s minds.

I mean, it’s not like we have any major announcements or catastrophes to cover, or that our state budget is still tooling around in a hand basket.

Plus, when it comes to sports, LA fans are a little… peculiar. The best baseball player in Los Angeles is a proven cheater obtained from another team. The best basketball team in the NBA is here, but it took some interesting trade shenanigans with a former LA player turned GM to make that happen. There are no major franchises (sorry Angels) here that were born here- all borrowed from somewhere else. And the good ones don’t stay- the storied NFL program left for friendlier pa$tures in $t. Loui$. The top two NFL franchises followed here (judged by area residents’ apparel and car flags) are Dallas and Oakland/LA/Oakland. The Chargers are a distant third, and even then only recently (read- when they started winning).

Again, this makes sense: Everyone is a transplant from somewhere else, and there’s so much more to do here than in, say, Dayton. It’s logical that most Los Angelenos would choose to pay attention to sports only if and when it is big and shiny.

However, when it comes to LA sports, nothing rallies bandwagon SoCal fans like the best college team money can buy. But even then, it takes something major to stir the masses.

So, recent news that their center has an owie, their #2 receiver is done, and their starting corner is academically ineligible barely raises a latte.

Yawn. Let’s go to the beach or Disneyland…

But one name, though, has stirred more controversy and conversation than any other this pre-season: Barkley.

That would be true freshman Matt Barkley, something of a California QB legend, who was named starter for the U$C program earlier last week.

A bit of history- Barkley started at Mater Dei High School as a true freshman, taking over the reins of a powerhouse southern California program.

Expected to “compete” for the starting job even in his first year, many have been surprised that he was named the starter for the San Jose State sacrifice and (apparently) the September 12 trip to Columbus.

Well, maybe “surprised” doesn’t quite cover it. The LA Times (Chicago Tribune west) writes that it’s too soon for the freshman–

USC Coach Pete Carroll’s decision Thursday to name (too-good-to-be-true?) freshman Matt Barkley the team’s starting quarterback may have just clinched a spot in the Bowl Championship Series title game . . . for Ohio State.

They’re probably pouring beers and doing knuckle-bumps at Betty’s Fine Food and Spirits on High Street in Columbus — with good reason.

We wonder whether Buckeyes Coach Jim Tressel has passed along to his two savvy, veteran senior safeties — Kurt Coleman and Anderson Russell — the fact Barkley threw 18 interceptions last year to high school defensive backs.

Making Barkley’s first-ever road trip a nationally televised game at Ohio Stadium is like sending a first violinist to Carnegie Hall before he has learned to play the entire concerto.

The OC Register posts that he’s ready for the fire, though, having seen “every defense in the book-

“Week to week, it’ll be different according to what team we’re playing. But I think we’re better prepared than a lot of offenses because of what we see day to day.

“All the fronts, the blitzes we see in practice — I’m confident in our defense and what they show us every day. A lot of schools can’t do that.”

The Register also goes onto say that there are a number of reasons that this decision is a wise one, not the least of which is Aaron Corp’s injured leg. Somehow, they also manage to slam Mitch Mustain in that article- wasn’t he the #1 QB coming out of HS, and a freshman starter at Arkansas?

Most Trojan faithful (and, given what we’ve already talked about regarding the fickle nature of SoCal sports fans, I use that term loosely) seem to concur that “If Pete says he’s good enough, then he’s good enough. Pete’s never let us down before.”

Well, things are different now. Gone are Norm Chow and  Steve Sarkisian, the architects of Palmer, Leinart, Booty, and Sanchez’s successes.  It will be interesting to see how Carl Smith and John Morton utilize the freshman.

Personally (’cause I know you want to know) I think that this is a case of Cool Hand Pete doing a bit of Rick James– He believes that he’s good enough and smart enough to make the magic happen, no matter who his QB is.

And, he may be right. You can’t argue with his record, or his player’s successes in the NFL. Shoot, Matt Cassell makes millions and just stood next to Pete holding a clipboard for four years.

But it’s hard not to remember that this is the same coach who, when leading the “mostest awesomest team ever” into a home game in Pasadena, out-thought himself and lost the game. In crunch time, with a 4th and short, he decided that having the Heisman Trophy winner on the field would be a bad idea. Hand off, turnover on downs, and Vince Young makes confetti happen.

So, is starting Barkley a bad idea? Obviously, we’ll find out on September 12. I agree with Eric that I want U$C to be at full strength with no “excuses” for the game. Let’s settle it on the field at our best. If that’s your first year QB, then so be it.

As a word of caution before we start to celebrate at Betty’s- last year, there was a lot of clamor for a freshman QB to start in the game in the Coliseum. Fans thought that this would make all the difference, and would springboard their team to the National Title.

And while Terrelle Pryor didn’t lead the Bucks to victory, he certainly played up to expectations and set the standard for the future of the program.