USC’s Barkley Returns While Canes Flee

As soon as the presser was called at Heritage Hall, you had the feeling he was coming back. Matt Leinart announced his senior year return from there and while Mark Sanchez used it as a platform to state that he was moving on to the next level, everything seemed to be pointing to Matt Barkley returning, which he announced on Thursday.

As websites ran the above image of Barkley and his return, it spokes a thousand words regarding the pageantry of college football – the hoisting of the Trojan sword, the sea of fans, the winning quarterback with the Hollywood smile and the two fingers in a ‘v’ for victory thrown his way by the masses.

That rah-rah tradition that doesn’t exist in Coral Gables and regarding this off-season, nor does the return of a star players with remaining eligibility.

Sure, Miami will return junior Ray-Ray Armstrong, suspended a grand total of five games in 2011 for two separate offenses, but the Canes lose Tommy Streeter, Lamar Miller, Marcus Forston, Olivier Vernon and Brandon Washington, all declaring for the NFL Draft and giving up their senior seasons at The U.

If you do a little digging on Barkley, you probably could’ve seen this coming a mile away. This is a first-class kid possessing the wherewithal to realize that college is a special time and once gone, there’s no looking back.

Barkley consulted past USC quarterbacks, did his homework, weighed out the decision and decided a few days back that he’s be a Trojan in 2012, with some unfinished business to take care of.

Barkley was born in well-off Newport Beach, light years away from the Pork and Bean projects. He attended a private, Catholic high school, Mater Dei, and probably never had to look over his shoulder a day in his life, running from thugs jealous of his on-the-field success.

Dad co-owns and insurance business and his folks started Monarchs For Marines, where hundreds of parents, students and coaches from his high school volunteered to renovate youth areas at the marine base down south at Camp Pendleton, just north of San Diego.

Barkley carried a 3.77 GPA in high school, is a devout Christian and even played a little acoustic guitar in his youth group. During the holiday season before enrolling at Southern Cal, Barkley and some friends and family went to help run an orphanage in South Africa.

By all accounts this is a sharp, wise, mature, grounded, centered and focused individual. There’s a reason he’s under center at a major program and there’s also a reason he was able to focus on the bigger picture instead of immediate gratification, glory and a pay day.

Different families are in different situations and there are some kids that forego a senior season simply to put food on the table. When that is the case, there’s nothing you can do but tip your hat to a 21-year old man doing what he has to do to provide for both the generation he’ll bring into this world, as well as his siblings and possible the generation that brought him into the world.

He’s carrying a heavy load and in choosing the NFL in effort to provide for family and to shoulder that burden, you respect it and wish him well.

But that isn’t always in the case.

Many times it’s the same attitude that causes an underclassmen to request a transfer because immediate playing time isn’t being offered and there’s logjam at his position. Instead of grinding it out, working hard, paying dues and reaping the reward, many take a shortcut, unable to truly grasp the fact that a year is really just a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of life.

The circumstances surrounding the early departure of five Miami Hurricanes is most-likely a mix of everything. Providing for family could be a big reason some guys are moving on, but it’d be foolish to not at least consider the fact there could be some entitlement, impatience, ego and selfishness involved, too. Especially with no sure-fire first rounder and a few of the five who could potentially go undrafted.

Barkley was slated to be a top five pick and the second quarterback off the board after Stanford’s Andrew Luck. By returning, he will raise his status and could arguably be the number one guy next season. Yes, there’s the risk of injury, but when isn’t that the case? Welcome to big time football, where your career could end on a freak play at any point, any game.

Barkley was featured on the website IAmSecond.com in the past, where he delves into his faith, his attitude, what he stands for and the responsibility he feels as USC’s quarterback, needing to help return the Trojans to prominence.

Barkley came to Southern Cal in 2009 as an early enrollee and started game one that fall. Injuries sidelined him twice, but he’s started 36 of 38 games the past three seasons and after going 9-4 and 8-5 the past two years, led the Trojans to a 10-2 season in 2011, setting the stage for a potentially nice run in 2012. Still, the journey has been anything by smooth sailing.

At the end of Barkley’s freshman season, then-head coach Pete Carroll bailed for the NFL, taking the Seattle job. The man who brought all the success to Troy and recruiting Barkley to be the next quarterback great, bailed out with sanctions looming.

From there, the fallout from the Reggie Bush era of USC football came to fruition, with the Trojans stripped of a national title, a Heisman Trophy, and put on probation, banning the program from the post-season.

While current Miami players sulk over no bowl game on the heels of this year’s 6-6 run, Barkley’s Trojans went 8-5 and 10-2 and stayed home two Decembers in a row. The lone bowl berth in Barkley’s career; an Emerald Bowl win over Boston College in 2009 after an 8-4 regular season.

USC also missed the inaugural Pac-12 Championship game this year, where they’d have taken on fourth-ranked Oregon for a shot at a Rose Bowl berth – a team Southern Cal already beat a few weeks back.

Instead, 6-6 UCLA represented the South Division instead of USC, the same Bruins team the Trojans disposed of 50-0 the week prior.

Barkley could’ve easily run after the 2009 season, sat out 2010, started for another top program and would be prepping for a bowl game this post-season and another few years of college ball, with Southern Cal and their issues all in the rearview.

Instead, he honored his commitment, stuck it out and beyond that, felt led to help the Trojans come back.

“I absolutely think God has placed me where I am and made me the person who I am to be in the position where I am and the platform that I have as the USC starting quarterback,” said Barkley in the linked I Am Second piece above.

“Only recently have I realized the power of that position and to see the USC quarterbacks of the past, how they’ve grown up and the influence that they’ve had on people, and now I’m in that same position – how can I use that for God’s kingdom?

I think leaving my mark at USC, not only as a football player, but as a man of God who brought USC through troubled times and relied on God and trusted in Him to make things happen, I think will be better than any game we could ever win.”

This isn’t a brainwashed homeschooler who rocks Bible verses under his eyes, points to the Denver skies after a score and spouts off meathead-sports-cliches after a win. Barkley is a kid who seemingly ‘gets it’, yet has remained under the radar, choosing to live out his faith instead of finding hokey and stereotypical ways to verbally shove his beliefs down America’s collective throat.

You see Barkley bucking the trend and making right decisions and it gives you faith in the process all over again. The only downside here is the fact he’s a kid doing it elsewhere, while so many recent Hurricanes chose wrong.

Honestly, who wouldn’t have loved to be a fly on the wall at Hecth on Thursday when Barkley’s decision went public?

Who wouldn’t have loved to hear Al Golden, Jedd Fisch, Mark D’Onofrio and other coaches discussing this good decision in light of the poor decisions that recently came out of Coral Gables – some of which like the Streeter departure, which Golden was outspoken against, suggesting another year to hone skills.

Here’s hoping that there are some Barkley-type kids in Miami’s future and less of the me-first type players who ignore sound advice, only see the short term and put self above team.

Yes, there are extenuating circumstances, making Barkley’s case different from others, but in the end it’s his motivation, heart, head, attitude and process which make him a cut above the rest. – C.B.

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