Scott Wolf Analysis: Barkley Lacks Signature Win
by Joey Kaufman on Nov 1, 2010 5:14 PM PDT
in USC Football
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PrintAfter USC's 18-15 win over Ohio State in Columbus last year, the Associated Press headline ran as follows: "Barkley engineers winning TD drive as USC scrapes past Ohio State."
The USC bookstore took the post-game celebration a step further, printing t-shirts commemorating the win, which read: "A freshman quarterback led the team eighty-six yards in fourteen plays after being at our own five yard line on second and nineteen, taking six minutes and ten seconds to silence the record-breaking crowd of one hundred six thousand thirty-three in Columbus, Ohio by scoring a touchdown plus two, making the score eighteen to fifteen on September twelfth, two thousand nine."
By most accounts, Barkley's performance in just his second game as a collegiate athlete would classify as a breakthrough, and even more precisely, it could be called a "signature win" as well.
But according to the Los Angeles Daily News' USC beat writer, Scott Wolf, Barkley's performance against the Buckeyes "does not count." And yes, as far as I know, Wolf was given press credentials to cover that game.
In my story for today's paper, I mentioned that quarterback Matt Barkley lacks a signature victory in his career. Some of you mentioned the Ohio State game last season. I did not count it because the defense set up one touchdown and on the game-winning drive Joe McKnight did a lot of the work (and Stafon Johnson scored the winning TD).
Maybe Washington was a chance but Lane Kiffin repeatedly mentioned the third-down incompletion that forced Joe Houston's missed field goal and then there was the incompletion to an open David Ausberry in the end zone.
Stanford? That was a good case with the last-minute touchdown to put USC ahead. But USC lost that game so it cannot count. I'd add that on a key drive in the fourth quarter there were two bad incompletions to Ronald Johnson (each was at fault on different plays) and it looked like USC was sunk until the Trojans forced a fumble.
More after the jump
I like to think that I am above Scott Wolf bashing, but these comments certainly raised a few eyebrows - at least in my humble opinion. Did Barkley play well in a primetime matchup against No. 1 Oregon last Saturday? Not particularly. After all, the sophomore signal caller finished with 2 interceptions compared to just 1 touchdown.
But instead or examining Barkley's performance against UO, Wolf, instead, uses this as an opportunity to analyze Barkley's entire career at USC. And in doing so, he fails miserably.
Insisting that Barkley lacks a "signature win" is purely attention seeking, and a way to irritate Trojan fans (i.e. readers). There is little to no basis in fact in such an assertion.
While Barkley failed to throw a touchdown pass against Ohio State, his involvement in that final drive is undeniable. In going 3-of-5 for 55 yards, Barkley converted a 3rd-and-8 from USC's own 16-yard line on a 21-yard completion to RB Joe McKnight. The next play, he completed a 26-yard pass to TE Anthony McCoy to move the Trojans within fourteen yards of Buckeye territory.
And furthermore, he made crucial plays with his feet as well.
On a 4th-and-1 at the Ohio State 28-yard line, Barkley dove for a 1-yard gain to complete the first down in order to keep the drive alive. Minutes later the drive ended on a Stafon Johnson touchdown followed by a successful two-point conversion attempt, where Barkley found Joe McKnight in the endzone.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Barkley played a significant role in that last drive against Ohio State, a top ten ranked team on the road in one of the toughest environments in all of college football. That is more than obvious.
Nothing more needs to be said.
FIGHT ON!
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What an Idiot!
So what if the defense set one score up he still had to drive them from deep in their own territory for the winning score.
Fucking moron!
James MacArthur - RIP "Book 'em Danno!"
Scott Wolf just oozes negativity
I was disappointed with Barkley and it’s clear that he needs to learn how to win big games if he wants to solidify his legacy among Trojan QBs. But you can’t say he didn’t set himself up for a signature win against Stanford. The defense blew that one. And to discount his win at Ohio State is so beyond ridiculous. If Wolf wants to throw that one out then I could just as easily throw out any of his losses.
by Alicia De Artola on Nov 1, 2010 5:42 PM PDT reply actions
This is the same guy
who last week was wondering why USC was not listed in the Coaches or Harris poll, despite the fact that he had posted a couple of months earlier that USC was ineligible for those polls.
Consider the source,
Wolf is the master of negativity
"Understanding is a virtue, hard to come by"
J. Airplane
Scott Wolf doesn't count.
In fact, he lacks a signature moment of competence.
by Zoulou on Nov 1, 2010 7:42 PM PDT reply actions 2 recs
+1,000,000
Or any moment of competence for that matter.
OK, can't resist any longer...
Joey, that asswipe has been at it since you were watching Sesame Street. We are playing into his hands, I recommend you delete this thread. Wanna laugh? Have a look at that thing’s Wikipedia page
Football season is here
U feeling Loco?
"Anonymous Sources and ‘Erroneous’ Reports"
Loco, I laughed soon as the page popped up and saw, “Scott Wolf – Journalist”
Feeble!
"Understanding is a virtue, hard to come by"
J. Airplane
Well he's got that going for him,
which is nice. . .
uhhh, yeah it WAS.
Wolf’s rationale for saying that Barkley’s performance against Ohio State was NOT a signature win is due to big plays from the defense and Joe McKnight. That’s weak Scott. Unless football has suddenly replaced golf or tennis as major individual sports… any win in football is a team win. As for Barkley, who WAS the QB that night, leading a winning come-from-behind drive… with a bad shoulder no less… in the final and insane minutes at the “Shoe”… yeah Scott, it was a signature win. Trouble is, as each week goes by, THAT win is becoming more and more of a distant memory. Barkley though being in a number of ‘big games’ since has not matched that performance at Ohio State and even has a losing record… like 4 combined (and successive) losses against Oregon and Stanford now SC’s biggest rivals in the PAC-10. Looking ahead, this either evens out or gets worse depending on how Barkley fares in the upcoming games with Arizona, Oregon State, Notre Dame, and UCLA three of which are on the road. And yeah, UCLA in the Rose Bowl is a lot different than the Bruins at the Coliseum. Sanctions or not things will get sour in L.A… and in a hurry… if SC can’t (at least this year) win those final two.
trojanWar
Wolf is a jackass
Barkley is 14-6 as a starter, 5-3 in games decided by 7 or fewer points, and 3-4 against team ranked at the time of the game. Wolf is not willing to count any of the 14 wins as signature wins…even though Barkley lead a 9-4 USC that finished #22 to a victory over an 11-2 OSU team that finished #5 in the country ON THE ROAD! Apparently, Barkely didn’t do enough on that final drive for it to count for a “signature win”. The facts reveal that USC drove the ball 86 yards in 6:10 seconds (leaving just 1:05 for the Buckeyes to answer) in a screaming loud stadium. Barkley acounted for 60 of the 86 yards (3-5 passing for 55 yards and 2 runs for 5 yards) and 4 of the 5 first downs (Joe McKnight got one on a hand off)! But I guess there were 10-20 yards of YACs in there so Barkley deserves no credit for that. Barkley ran for 2 first downs, including a 4th down conversion (when Tebow does it…it’s Heisman material, but when Barkley does it, the OL getsthe credit). Barkley completed a pass for the 2-point conversion, to put USC up by 3. Barkley (as a true freshman) outplayed Terrrell Pryor (as a sophomore) by throwning for more yards, higher percentage of completions and fewer pick 6s, even though we NOW KNOW that OSU’s D was vastly superior to USC’s D. But…it’s not a signature win because Barkely didn’t do enough.
So by Wolf’s definition of signature wins…we can exclude: 1. All wins by more than 7 points even against ranked teams (See Cal 2009…a blowout can’t count as a signature win because USC played too well) 2. All wins by fewer than 7 points if the team USC defeated was ranked, but a game-winning drive wasn’t required (See ND 2009…there was no game winning drive) 3. All wins against ranked teams where a game winning drive was required but Barkley accounted for less that 70% of the yardage on that drive(he only accounted for 69.76% of the final drive against OSU and there were other players on the team who contributed by catching passes, blocking, etc).
How many CFB players would ever accomplish a signature win that would satisfy Wolf?. Hard to say, but I doubt anyone’s losing sleep over it.
Don't agree with giving the Wolfbag extra hits on his site
Why evaluate the worst writer covering USC? But, while I disagree with the statement, I do understand it. Barkley was anemic that game. He passed for under 50%. His QB rating was dismal with 0 TDs and 1 INT. He should have never been starting as a frosh. USC won that game in spite of Barkley.
But, I really do love the kid. And, he was the QB. And, we did win. So, of course it counts. I would also add wins on the road against then-ranked Cal and ND with Clausen as good wins too, and wins in which Barkley played huge. Guess it kind of depends on how you define “signature”.
You can't put sanctions on the fkn endzone! Bowls are for salad!
Wolf is beyond idiot
OK folks, consider the source. I doubt blogging for the Daily News is considered big-time journalism.
When Wolf writes, his opinions are indistinguishable from actual facts. This is the same bozo who frequently misspells words, said that Keyshawn Johnson wore #1 and probably ought to take “gross factual error” as his nom de plume. If Wolf were employed by the New York Times -not that they’d ever hire that hack-, by now he would likely be getting a pink slip. Too many errors. Let’s not give him the time of day here anymore.
This is the exact quote from Wolf’s story in the DN: “Kiffin mentioned that former wide receiver Mike Williams wore No. 1. It was also worn by Keyshawn Johnson but Kiffin did not name him.”
Now back to MB7.
Some people insist on calling the Trojans won-loss record, Barkley’s won loss record. For the record, our porous defense probably lost us the Stanford game. Bad clock management -our coach LK- lost us the Washington game. Otherwise, the victories and losses are a team effort.
MB7 is a good young QB who is improving with every game. I cannot wait for rest of season and can only imagine what MB7 will do next year and in 2012!
Wolf has it on good sources
That C.J. Spiller is a silent commit.
Wolf------what a weird guy maybe he should just be changed to fucla coverage, just about every USC coach has told him to STFU at one time or another.
His columns and blog is a complete joke as he is——-Did this guy even go to USC or is he from southern california———Just another Poser and a very strange person to boot.
I love national championships it makes me feel superior to others, my whole place has USC stuff everywhere, it's painted red and gold, my car is the same colors my asscrack is bruin blue.
by so.cal.native1952 on Nov 2, 2010 11:13 AM PDT reply actions
Wow Wiki page!!
How did this guy get a job as writer following USC; when he’s got nothing but erronous articles about USC!! That’s ashame that a big time program such as USC has people like this following them everyday..no wonder they get nothing but HATE from outsiders!!
I don't know why they don't just ask him to leave and get a restraining order against him.
I love national championships it makes me feel superior to others, my whole place has USC stuff everywhere, it's painted red and gold, my car is the same colors my asscrack is bruin blue.
by so.cal.native1952 on Nov 2, 2010 2:18 PM PDT up reply actions
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