Matt Barkley gives USC one to grow on

FROM COLUMBUS, OHIO — The word kid is gone, vanishing within a pack of bouncing, braying teammates who rode him through a stomach-dropping Saturday night.

"He's not a kid anymore, he's a man," said USC's Joe McKnight.

The word risk is also gone, smothered under the prone, heaving jerseys of the guys who were flattened.

"They just pounded it down our throats," said Ohio State's Austin Spitler.

The questions that had dogged the USC football program for several weeks were stunningly answered Saturday night with two words.

Matt. Barkley.

"He's no longer that young freshman quarterback," said Jeremy Bates, USC's quarterbacks coach. "He's now the starting quarterback at USC."

Period. End of story. Beginning of stardom.

Those who questioned Coach Pete Carroll's sanity, those who thought a true freshman should never be the starting quarterback for a championship-contending team . . . were you watching? Were you listening?

Were you thinking what I was thinking?

Does anybody else believe that the Barkley-led, game-winning, 86-yard comeback touchdown drive in the final 7:15 of Saturday night's 18-15 win over eighth-ranked Ohio State at Ohio Stadium could be the start of something not only big, but historic?

"Leading a team to a comeback victory in the last minutes against Ohio State at the Horsehoe, are you kidding me?" linemen Jeff Byers said. "What kind of 19-year-old kid does that?"

Mark Sanchez never did these kinds of things. Carson Palmer never did them in this sort of environment. Matt Leinart did something like this once, at Notre Dame, and it wound up making him millions.

Matt Barkley has done it in his second collegiate start.

Took the ball at the end of a messy USC effort that featured a bad snap out of an end zone, a kick off a crossbar, blown coverages and dumb penalties.

Started on the Trojans' 14-yard line with little or no chance to salvage it.

Stepped aside while Coach Pete Carroll paid a sudden surprise visit to the huddle.

"How cool would it be for us to take the ball downfield and win this game?" Carroll screamed at the players.

Then Carroll left, and it was all Barkley, and the kid was smiling, some teammates even said he was joking, and later when he asked whether he thought he could pull it off, he answered simply.

"Yes," he said. "I knew our offense was going to score."