Thurgood Marshall graduation 2012
Badin vs. Versailles
Law Enforcement Memorial Day
Home > Blogs > Buckeyes Beat > Archives > 2009 > September > 09
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Barkley to OSU crowd: “Bring it on”
In case you haven’t heard, USC quarterback Matt Barkley was in high school last year. He’s a true freshman starting for the Trojans, who will visit Ohio Stadium on Saturday in the one of the premier non-conference college football games this season.
Many Ohio State fans have placed some confidence in the game because of Barkley’s inexperience, especially considering Ohio Stadium holds one of the largest crowd’s in college football.
Barkley, apparently, isn’t as concerned, according to the Los Angeles Times:
“Bring it on,” Barkley said after practice. “I’ll imagine they’re all cheering for us.”
Cockiness, maybe? Or just confidence? Or fake confidence? We’ll see on Saturday.
But inexperience isn’t as much of an issue. Barkley has earned so much attention, praise and microscope treatment, he’s not exactly you’re fresh-from-high-school player. He’s even ahead of where Terrelle Pryor was last year at USC, because he graduated from high school early to attend USC spring practices. Pryor did not.
Barkley has his own Web site. He was his high school team’s starting quarterback for four years, and even as a freshman he passed for 1,685 yards and 10 touchdowns.
He did, however, throw 18 interceptions as a high school senior, which is a surprising statistic. Granted, he also completed 54.5 percent of his passes for 2,877 yards and 23 touchdowns, but he nearly matched those TD passes with interceptions.
To me, Ohio State fans should feel most optimistic about that stat.
Still, to help Barkley along, the Trojans practiced with added crowd noise on Tuesday. Afterward, he told reporters he was ready for the noise.
“It will be a little louder,” he said, “but I’ve got a loud voice.”
