Barkley to lead Trojans in 2009

In an unprecedented, but not completely unsurprising move, USC head coach Pete Carroll named true freshman Matt Barkley as the Trojans' starting quarterback for Saturday's season opener against San Jose State. Barkley, the former four-year starter at Mater Dei, was an early commit to the Trojans and graduated high school early so that he could enroll at SC and participate in spring drills.

He quickly surpassed junior transfer Mitch Mustain as the No. 2 quarterback, and was rated just under designated starter Aaron Corp of Orange Lutheran. But with Corp hampered by a cracked bone in his left leg, Barkley was impressive enough for Carroll to declare him the starter for the season. Perhaps even more suprising was that Carroll did so before the Trojans' final intersquad scrimmage and just when Corp was coming back on the practice field.

In an interesting footnote, Corp was 2-0 against Barkley during their high school careers. Corp had 226 total yards (142 passing, 184 rushing) in a 27-21 nonleague season opener in 2005. Barkley threw for 107 yards and a touchdown in his freshman debut for the Monarchs.

A year later, the teams met in the newly-formed Trinity League, with the Lancers winning 24-21. Barkley threw for 219 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdowns to rally the Monarchs, but Corp had 249 passing yards while rushing 59 more and touchdown, and guided Orange Lutheran to a last-second win on their way to winning the CIF-Southern Section Pac-5 Division championship and eventual CIF-State Division I title.

Two of the county's all-time best prep quarterbacks, Corp and Barkley met twice as opponents during the high school careers. Corp led Orange Lutheran to a pair of closely-fought wins over the Mater Dei in 2005 and 2006.