General

Could Aaron Corp Be USC’s Trojan Horse?

Sep 18, 2009, 6:30 PM UTC

It’s a tale as old as time in college football: Highly-touted recruit wins job in spring camp, breaks leg on third day of fall practice, is replaced by even more highly-touted true freshman (who leads team to win in a hostile road environment with a clutch drive), and, when that freshman injures his shoulder, is given back the keys to the kingdom. â†µâ†µEr, maybe this only happens at USC. But sources tell ESPN that third-year sophomore Aaron Corp will be the starter for the Trojans’ game at Washington this Saturday, replacing freshman wunderkind Matt Barkley, whose injured shoulder will keep him sidelined.â†µ

â†µâ†µCorp is only a little over a month removed from suffering a broken bone in his leg, and “almost fully recovered,” but his story is that he’s been healthy enough to lead USC since Pete Carroll awarded the job to Barkley. Corp was miffed then, and is probably going to continue to be, as the same source indicated to ESPN that this isn’t anything more than a spot start.â†µ

â†µâ†µThe logic behind the decision is puzzling, too. Barkley injured his shoulder in USC’s game against Ohio State, but he was healthy enough to go 3-for-4 on the already near-mythical go-ahead drive in the Horseshoe. So why isn’t he good to go against the Huskies? And why start Corp from the outset rather than trying out Barkley and pulling him if the injury limits his effectiveness?â†µ

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â†µUSC certainly seemed to rally around Barkley last week; tailback Joe McKnight was impressed enough to say "He's going to take us all the way to the promised land." By inserting a player who was demonstrably better than their heralded starter in spring practice, Carroll and USC are risking Corp outshining Barkley and igniting a quarterback controversy. For a team that appears to be the class of the Pac-10 and in position to make a run at Pasadena, the old if-you-have-two-quarterbacks-you-have-none quandary would be a disappointingly prosaic way to torpedo a season.â†µ

â†µâ†µThe much more deliciously chaotic scenario: The feisty Washington team that outgained LSU outguns the Trojans through a half, both Corp and Barkley are incapacitated by injury, and Arkansas transfer Mitch Mustain rescues USC in the fourth quarter. Then the real war for the Trojan helmsman’s spot begins.â†µ

â†µâ†µThis all said, Corp probably starts and plays just well enough to win, but not well enough to supplant Barkley, Mustain remains planted on the pine, and the only intrigue about USC is who they’ll invite to the team sing-a-long next week. It isn’t late enough in the year (and Washington is too good a foe, with Jake Locker married to coach Steve Sarkisian’s system) for the Trojans’ truth to be stranger than fiction.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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