COLUMBUS, Ohio -- It was John Elway, The Teen Years.
The Drive on training wheels.
Same rocket arm, same blonde hair, same good looks, same barrel chest, same number. Hell, it even happened in the same state.
Cleveland's lament 22 years ago became Ohio State's horror Saturday night. Up until then, all USC freshman quarterback Matt Barkley did was resemble Elway, who is still the author of one of the most depressing days in Ohio history.
On a slightly smaller scale, Barkley ripped the heart out of a frothing, lathered-up stadium. The difference between an NFL playoff win guided by a Hall of Famer and winning a game between two top 10 teams in September was experience. The product of Orange County, Calif. didn't have much. Barkley had played in all of 7½ quarters in college before facing 86 yards ahead of him and a gnarly Ohio State defense with 7:15 left with his team trailing 15-10.
In one dramatic, game-winning drive Barkley channeled Ol' Horse Teeth, at the same time kicking tortured No. 8 Ohio State in the teeth. No. 3 USC won 18-15 in perhaps its most dramatic comeback since the famed Bush Push game in 2005 at Notre Dame.
They'll remember this one for as long as blondes have more fun. Nine months removed from high school, a few weeks after becoming USC's starter as an 18-year-old, a week after becoming the first true freshman Trojan quarterback to start a season, the 19-year-old Barkley (his birthday was Tuesday), directed a drive for the ages.
When Stafon Johnson ran around right end with 65 seconds left for the game-winning touchdown, USC once again proved it could win the big one. The little ones? We'll get back to you on that one. Stanford and Oregon State are still ahead on the schedule.
For now, Pete Carroll's intuition worked. When he named Barkley the starter last month, it was with the feeling that this kid could walk into The Horseshoe and win.
"We waited until about Day 5 to see if he was for real," Carroll said of spring practice. "He handled [things] unlike no one we've seen ... It's unusual a guy can do this."
Fine, but did he have to cut it so close?
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| Matt Barkley gets a hug from his proud coach Pete Carroll following the USC win. (Getty Images) |
Elway? The Drive? Sure, it's a stretch. Elway was a gunslinger. He threw 10 passes in a 15-play drive gobbling up 98 yards to beat the Cleveland Browns in the playoffs. Barkley hasn't fully comprehended how to read a college defense. It wasn't until the second half that quarterbacks coach and play-caller Jeremy Bates stretched him out a little bit.
Even on the final 14-play drive, Barkley threw only three passes. But his drive was just as clutch as Elway's in 1987.
"I think a lot of that was Elway[-like]," said USC running backs coach Todd McNair, who played in the NFL for eight seasons. "I think Elway carried them down the field that day. Matt accentuated the running game. [But] there will be a time when he makes 13 throws in that drive."
This game was always about the quarterbacks. One career or another was going to rise or fall on the result of this game. Saturday isn't a final verdict but it sure is a jumping off point.
In his second year, Ohio State's Terrelle Pryor still hasn't scaled that wall that separates him from true greatness. His second pass of the game went right into the arms of linebacker Chris Galippo and set up USC's one touchdown drive -- two yards -- until the fourth quarter.
Really, USC hadn't done much all night until it started at its own 14 with half a quarter left. Barkley was sacked on the first play. Then there was a false start. Backed up to his own 5, Barkley hit Joe McKnight for 21, then found Anthony McCoy for 26.
Suddenly at Ohio State's 37, doom turned into hope. Barkley, according to McKnight, was telling jokes. In the huddle. All night.
"Yeah, it reminded me of Elway's drive," Southern Cal AD Mike Garrett said. "We only had two drives the whole game but that one ..."
The offensive line that had been called the best he'd ever seen by San Jose State coach Dick Tomey, lined up and knocked Ohio State off the ball -- McKnight for one, Barkley sneaked for two, McKnight for four, McKnight for seven, McKnight. Barkley sneaked for four more down to the 2.
"I think we verified who are," Barkley said. "There were a lot of haters out there, a lot of doubters."
The kid obviously heard them all from the record Ohio Stadium of more than 106,000. Go back to high school. This is the Big Ten.
"They weren't saying that in the fourth quarter, though," Barkley said.
Unlike The Drive, the game didn't win a championship. Not yet, but it kept one alive. Losing to a top 10 team wouldn't have killed USC's chances. But winning sure did wreck Ohio State's evening and maybe its season.
Jim Tressel has now lost six in a row against top five teams. His team is a trademark for the Big Ten's dubious rep of late. Pete Carroll? The man is now 14-3 against top 10 teams. Compare that to John McKay, the granddaddy of them all at USC, who lost 10 of his first 17 to top 10 teams.
Barkley played like a freshman at times. His first career interception stopped a second-quarter drive. Other times his receivers just couldn't break loose. The running game was bottled up for most of the game (118 yards on 40 carries).
Tressel was about to win the game by waterboarding the Trojans. Slow death by field position, torture between the tackles. Heck, the man won a national championship doing just that in 2002.
The numbers don't reveal much. Barkley completed only 15 of 31 for 195 yards. But it's how you finish, not how you start. An 11-year-old Jeremy Bates had seen it before on television in 1987.
"Matt definitely has it ...," said Bates, now 33, in a raucous USC lockerroom. "That's a special quality in him and a lot of the special quarterbacks who are able to take the team down in two minutes."
That list grew by one on Saturday.
