Earlier today I was absolutely shocked by the announcement of Matt Barkley winning the starting QB job, but after reading Scott Wolf's latest report on Aaron Corp's injury status, the choice makes absolute sense:
It was apparent during Thursday's practice that Aaron Corp's leg bothered him. What's ironic is it looked worse than it did Tuesday or Wednesday. Was it the result of being demoralized over the QB announcement?
"It's going to be awhile (with Corp),'' Carroll said. ``I can see it. He's not OK. I thought about it in terms of being his dad. I need to protect him longer.''
Although Aaron put together solid practices this week, reports did come out stating that he looked visibly uncomfortable when planting on certain throws, especially on the run. Even his quote after Tuesday's practice seem to acknowledge his limitations:
"I can do everything right now that playing quarterback at USC [requires] me to do,"
At the end of the day, despite Aaron's admirable desire to fight through pain to earn the starting QB job, it does no one any good to have a injured player starting at the most important position on the team. We all saw what happened at the Coliseum in 2007 against Stanford when John David Booty tried to play through a pinky injury on his throwing hand (for those that lived under a rock: he ended up being picked off 4 times including one late in the game that eventually set up the winning drive for Stanford). To me it's clear, you go with a healthy Barkley over a hobbled Aaron Corp.
Congrats to Matt.
