It’s not exactly a state secret that Southern Cal head coach Pete Carroll is a tad bit enamored by freshman quarterback Matt Barkley. “Over-the-top” comes to mind for some reason as it relates to the Carroll-Barkley dynamic.
Quite bluntly, the coach’s fawning over a player who’s played in a mere two games is just a little disconcerting and uncomfortable, at least from afar.
Which brings us to Aaron Corp, who, through no fault of his own, is... well... not Barkley. And that seems to be an issue of growing concern for the football program.
Corp, in his first collegiate start, stepped in for Barkley and was, to be kind, not good in the upset loss to Washington. And if you don’t believe my analysis of Corp, just listen to his coach.
“He struggled with anything down field,” Carroll said of Corp. “We were very fortunate that we didn’t throw three or four more picks. There were three or four more (interceptions) there for (Washington to take).”
Uh. Oh.
It’s one thing to be honest with a player within the cozy confines of a coach’s office or a team’s meeting room. It’s another thing entirely to take that honesty and share it with the public at large through the media. And in such an emasculating manner to boot.
Especially when the player involved may still feel like he got screwed out of the starting job due to his own injury to begin with, an edge for the job he had earned with a strong performance in spring practice and carried into the start of summer camp.
And especially when said player may be counted on at some point before the end of the season to save the same coach’s ass who just seemed to throw him under the proverbial bus.