Matt Barkley and Matt Kalil: In for a dime in for a dollar

Well, whatever their decision is on their future, it will be made together.

So, either we will be doubly elated or doubly disappointed...

Both are weighing whether to turn pro or return to help the Trojans make a run at a Bowl Championship Series title next season.

The Matts will decide separately, but Kalil anticipates a "chain reaction" that will result in the "double package" either moving on or staying put.

"We either both leave or we both stay," he said recently. "I think that's the way it will play out."

Said Barkley: "I think it would be a big factor but not a definite yes or a definite no."

I think if Kalil goes its a no-brainer Barkley goes....Matt Barkley would be losing a major anchor in his protection.

If its the other way around then it is a bit trickier to figure out.

I don't know anything here, but I have a hunch that both will depart USC. They have been through a lot over the past three years.

Competing for a BCS title might not be as important to them as the bigger plan for their respective futures.

Not after all they have been through.

I am not going to dwell on it too much.

Regardless of their decision, these two will go down in USC lore as two of the greatest. Not just because of their production on the field but because of how they handled themselves during one of the most trying times in the history of USC football.

Regardless, Barkley will not let the emotion of his possible final game carry the day...

Matt Barkley won't be overcome with emotion Saturday against UCLA.

"I'm not really emotional as it is," the USC quarterback said Tuesday. "You don't see me getting super jacked up or super low. I'm pretty even-keeled."

So was former USC quarterback Matt Leinart. But the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner took the field in tears when the Trojans played the Bruins in 2005.

Leinart, his emotions getting the better of him in his final game at the Coliseum, was visibly shaky in the Trojans' first series.

Barkley, a junior regarded as a top NFL prospect, pointed out that his situation was "completely different" than that of Leinart, who was a fifth-year senior.

There are no similarities.

Leinart was on the way to playing in another BCS title game, USC was riding a 30-game plus winning streak while leading one of the most prolific offenses ever seen in college football history.

Barkley has the opportunity to finish off his own legacy at USC, but without being able to play in the post season I am not sure that breaking records is important to Barkley.