MAIN MENU

Matt Barkley Home
Matt Barkley News
Video Highlights
Matt Barkley Links
USC Trojans
Sitemap
Contact Us

MATT BARKLEY NEWS

• USC football: Matt Barkley named Pac-12 offensive player of week
• USC Trojans Football: Matt Barkley The Maestro In Upset Of Oregon
• Matt Barkley Heisman campaign begins
• USC huge win at Oregon
• Stopping RB Polk is biggest key
• USC's Matt Barkley finds love and perspective in Nigeria
• Record-game For Barkley; Woods and Lee Shine in 48-41 Win Over Arizona
• USC Football Returns Home To Host Arizona
• Bank Of The West Weekly Football Honors
• FB | Jones still out with injury, to miss game Saturday against Southern California
• Trojans in need of better effort
• Scoggins: For Kiffin, misery doesn't love company
• USC Football Notebook: Barkley, Woods on same page in scrimmage
• USC's Matt Barkley named to 2011 Manning Award watch list
• USC FOOTBALL NOTES: Barkley shaky in first scrimmage
• Pio Vatuvei Verbals To USC Trojans Football
• USC's Matt Barkley, 5 other Pac-12 players named to 2011 Walter Camp watch list
• Southern California Trojans football
• USC Trojans Football: The Nickell Robey Story
• USC football: Issues come to the fore in the fourth
• Trojans release new numbers fot the fall roster
• No changes on the horizon for USC's football uniforms
• USC football: Nick Perry has a big number in mind
• OT Smith helps keep first-round grade at USC pro day
• Injuries will impact USC practice
• USC linemen the next Cam Newton?
• USC hires Nebraska's Gilmore as WRs coach
• USC Trojans redshirt freshman WR Kyle Prater breaks foot
• Eight USC Trojans invited to 2011 NFL Combine
• USC's Johnson, O'Dowd, Wright to take part in 2011 Under Armour Senior Bowl
• Amir Carlisle and Anthony Sarao Choose USC
• USC Recruiting | Trojans eyeing McKeesport DL recruit Delvon Simmons
• USC football: Is Lane Kiffin too unemotional?
• USC signs two more JC gridders
• Football recruiting: Losing Aaron Douglas hurts
• USC Football Recruiting: One More Verbal and Closing the Book on a Busy Weekend
• USC football: Breaking down Matt Barkley’s season
• USC seniors deserve a better ending
• USC Football Hosts Notre Dame In Famed Intersectional Rivalry
• USC Football: Was the Arizona Game a Sign of a Modified Spread in 2011?
• Barkley named semifinalist for O’Brien Award
• USC FOOTBALL NOTES: Passing comment serves as motivation
• Report card: Grading the Trojans (vs. Stanford)
• USC Football | Sarkisian shows he has transitioned from student to master
• Jupiter and Havili named USC Credit Union Student Athletes of the Week
• USC Football: Robert Woods' 97-yard kickoff touchdown return
• USC's Tyler goes from forgotten to first
• USC leans on Matt Barkley's leadership
• Mater Dei WR Blackwell among best in California
• USC Football Success Factors in 2010 And Beyond
• Laying the Foundation: USC Football Recruiting, 2011
• Joe McKnight doesn't mind the comparisons to New Orleans Saints' Reggie Bush
• USC Trojans to face Boston College Eagles in Emerald Bowl
• Corp gets the nod in Saturday's game against Washington
• Colts sign rookies Austin Collie (WR, BYU) and Fili Moala
• The Sideline Report: '09 College Football Preview
• USC 101: History of the Song Girl
• USC football: The best DBs, OLs in the nation?
• USC football: 5 most indispensable Trojans
• Ryans set to help Cushing
• USC football: 10 things we learned in spring (No. 4)
• UCS's Pete Carroll to Author "Win Forever" Book
• Trojans' quarterback Barkley getting into a groove
• Trojans' defense is quickly making strides
• 2009 NFL Draft Preview: Clay Matthews
• Lions coach Jim Schwartz will keep open mind at draft
• Waiting game finally over for Chiefs' Cassel
• Odd questions are the norm for prospects at the NFL combine
• Longevity runs in Matthews family
• Pythons kept at bay by brilliant Baxter
• SIGNING DAY 2009 : West Helena's Winston highlights Razorbacks' 2009 commitments
• USC's Sanchez among 12 Trojans invited to NFL combine
• Should He Have Stayed One More Season? Mark Sanchez Enters the NFL Draft!
• Carroll apologizes to Sanchez for demeanor
• Carl Smith And Mark Jackson Join USC Football Staff
• High School Football: Matt Barkley Leads White Team to Victory in Under Armour All-America Game
• Next Season Could Be A Test For Carroll, Trojans
• Trojans offensive line will have holes to fill
• Trojans' Moala will try not to cry
• Trojans' outlook: Up in BCS, down in Rose Bowl hopes
• USC blanks Arizona State, 28-0
• USC Seeks Upward Mobility
• QB Tuel takes aim at Centennial
• USC linebacker Cushing could be sidelined for Oregon State game
• Matt Barkley, Nation's Top HS Football Prospect, Opens Season on ESPN2

Waiting game finally over for Chiefs' Cassel

They never thought the kid would have to wait this long. Matt Cassel's high school coaches told him that, yes, if he wanted to play college football at Southern California, he'd have to wait his turn. That was part of the deal if he chose to play for a powerhouse.

They didn't say anything about waiting nearly 10 years.

Cassel spent five seasons at USC and never started a game. He was the backup to Heisman Trophy winners Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart, and if Cassel wanted to crack the starting lineup, playing tight end or slot would have been his best chance.

Then he spent his first three NFL seasons as a backup, behind Tom Brady and the airtight job security that four Pro Bowls bring.

Cassel kept waiting, trying to be patient — as his high school coaches had advised.

"You always thought he'd have a shot," said Bill Coan, coach at Chatsworth High, north of Los Angeles. "You'd think that, at one point, he'd get frustrated."

He did. In college, he considered transferring to UCLA. Then as his NFL years passed, some close to him thought the chisel-chinned Cassel had a better shot at landing a television gig.
SURPRISING TRADE

Then it happened. A sequence of events that gave Cassel his first chance in a nearly decade. He won 11 games last year as New England's starter, while passing for 3,693 yards and 21 touchdowns. A week ago, the Patriots traded Cassel, along with linebacker Mike Vrabel, to Kansas City for the Chiefs' second-round draft pick. For the first time since he was a high school senior, Cassel will enter a football season preparing to be a starting quarterback.

"Eight years of just sitting there and waiting," said Cassel, 26. "Everybody is always telling you, 'You have to be ready; you are one ankle sprain away.' I was sitting there going, 'Gosh, nobody sprains their ankle anymore.' "

Cassel learned the hard way that nothing is assured. Chiefs coach Todd Haley said that Cassel and Tyler Thigpen will compete for the starting job. But Kansas City didn't trade for Cassel so he can be a backup.

The Chiefs also aren't likely to take on Cassel's $14.6 million salary, which he's guaranteed by the franchise-player contract he signed with the Patriots, so he can keep sitting and watching.

He had enough of that in college. Coan said Cassel was willing to wait out Palmer. Two or three years, tops. The plan was for Cassel, in due time, to step in and become USC's next star passer.

"He could've won a Heisman," Coan said.
chow liked leinart

Instead, the Trojans changed coaches before Cassel's redshirt freshman season. Coan said that offensive coordinator Norm Chow preferred Leinart. Coan said the "knock" on Cassel at USC was that he was always asking why things were done in certain ways, and Coan admitted that although the quarterback's questions were more a learning exercise than a display of snobbery, Cassel's approach might have irritated some coaches.

"It is funny," Cassel says now.

The Patriots took a chance on the unproven quarterback, gambling that his pedigree, build and experience were at least worth a seventh-round pick in 2005.

Coaches kept telling Cassel to stick it out. But Brady kept winning and kept going to Pro Bowls. His Patriots were perfect in 2007, and Brady was voted the NFL's most valuable player. Cassel phoned home often, and his confidants kept telling him his time would come.

"I always tell a kid," Coan said, "he's going to have an opportunity."

The Patriots started the 2008 season with a home game against the Chiefs, during which safety Bernard Pollard lunged at Brady on a blitz. As Brady released the ball, Pollard's right shoulder hit Brady's left knee.

The hit tore the anterior cruciate ligament, and Brady's season was finished.
PATIENCE PAYS OFF

Six months later, Cassel's franchise-player contract makes him one of the NFL's top-paid players, and he'll enter the 2009 season as the Chiefs' best hope for a franchise quarterback. The irony is he'll now share a locker room with Pollard.

"Nobody likes to see anybody go down, I'm sure including himself," Cassel says. "I will talk to him and say, 'Hello'; say, 'Thank you for the opportunity.' "

Coan said he thought, all those years ago, that Cassel's opportunity would have come earlier. Eight years is a long time to ask a player to stay patient.

"It did surprise us a little bit, too," Coan said. "Just finally, after all these years, to prove himself that he is at that level."

"He finally got his shot."

(More on www.honoluluadvertiser.com)

MORE MATT BARKLEY NEWS

Message: This news feed will stop on Jan 23 2012. Thank you for your custom.
Jan 30 2012 2:34PM GMT

Football recruiting: Morris may be a pleasant surprise for Tide
Montgomery Advertiser Jan 30 2012 2:34PM GMT Florida State. "You see Alec Morris here, he's serviceable. Alabama hasn't needed to have Andrew Luck, Matt Barkley or Matt Stafford out there to win. So field generals are good. Quarterbacking one of the premier programs for two seasons in

Football recruiting: Morris may be a pleasant surprise for Tide
Prattville Progress Jan 30 2012 12:20PM GMT Florida State. "You see Alec Morris here, he's serviceable. Alabama hasn't needed to have Andrew Luck, Matt Barkley or Matt Stafford out there to win. So field generals are good. Quarterbacking one of the premier programs for two seasons in

Local roundup: Disc golfers Criss, Hokum win open divisions at Felton Freeze
Santa Cruz Sentinel Jan 30 2012 10:59AM GMT the Intermediate flight, La Selva's Ryan Gonyea shot a 2-under 112 for the win, San Jose's Matt Barkley took second with 117 and Monterey's Sean Allen took third at 119. CYCLING The fourth race in the Surf City Cyclo-X series course was held Sunday at

Kiffin, Orgeron Keep USC on Track
DawgsBite.com Jan 30 2012 6:37AM GMT of Robert Woods and Marquise Lee among others, and some teams could lose some of their leaders like Matt Barkley. ?Getting or keeping those guys on campus while trimming the roster of non producers will help lessen the impact of the scholarship

Holler: RG3 holds the key
PackerReport.com Jan 29 2012 2:22PM GMT flat on their faces, the quarterback market is as hot as it has ever been. The decisions of Matt Barkley and Landry Jones, both of whom would have been first-rounders, to stay in school increased Griffin?s value. Unlike most aspects of life, where

Top recruits don't always work out for teams
Individual.com Jan 29 2012 9:28AM GMT Missouri, Gateway (Mo.): Academics forced him to JC for two years, Missouri backup for half of 2011. 5. Matt Barkley, QB, USC, Mater Dei (Calif.): Threw for Pac-12 record 39 TDs, early Heisman favorite for 2012. Class of 2008 1. Terrelle Pryor, QB, Ohio

Mock draft begins with Luck, trade for Griffin
SI.com Jan 29 2012 7:58AM GMT read is that Tannehill is the most likely candidate. Washington's desperation at quarterback is obvious, and no Matt Barkley or Landry Jones means the Redskins might have to roll the dice on the former Aggie. Quinton Coples, DE, North Carolina. The

Top recruits don't always work out for teams
Pittsburgh Tribune Review Jan 29 2012 7:23AM GMT Missouri, Gateway (Mo.): Academics forced him to JC for two years, Missouri backup for half of 2011. 5. Matt Barkley, QB, USC, Mater Dei (Calif.): Threw for Pac-12 record 39 TDs, early Heisman favorite for 2012. 1. Terrelle Pryor, QB, Ohio State,

Top recruits don't always work out for teams
Pittsburgh Tribune Review Jan 29 2012 7:23AM GMT Missouri, Gateway (Mo.): Academics forced him to JC for two years, Missouri backup for half of 2011. 5. Matt Barkley, QB, USC, Mater Dei (Calif.): Threw for Pac-12 record 39 TDs, early Heisman favorite for 2012. 1. Terrelle Pryor, QB, Ohio State,