Matt Barkley

The Register's Michael Lev, who now spends his fall days covering the USC football team after several years of writing about the NFL, was back on the sidelines of a high school football game on Friday night.

His assignment: check out Mater Dei's Matt Barkley, who has committed to USC, to see if the strong-armed QB has real Heisman and NFL potential, as many have speculated.

Like everyone else in the country, Lev has heard a lot about Barkley, the 2007 Gatorade National Player of the Year, over the past year or so, but Friday's playoff game was a chance to gather some important firsthand knowledge.

What did Lev see? What did he think? What was his analysis of Barkley?

We'll let you judge for yourself. Click here to see Lev's scouting report on Barkley.

And click here to see Lev's report on rumors that Barkley is backing out of his commitment to USC.

Division II second round

Canyon (20-10) vs. La Canada (19-9) at Pasadena City College

Prediction: The Comanches claimed their first-ever postseason victory on Tuesday but now face one of the section's most experienced playoff schools. La Canada won the Division III crown last season and will take a clear victory against a senior-dominated Canyon squad. La Canada's armada includes Spencer Borisoff, brother of USC player Devon Borisoff.

Orange County has seen some outstanding quarterbacks, including three who went on to win Heisman Trophies and many others who played in the NFL. But none has been as noteworthy as Barkley going into a senior year. Barkley was a Trinity League player of the year, was the county offensive player of the year and was named Gatorade football player of the year and Gatorade athlete of the year – as a junior. He passed for a school-record 3,560 yards last season when he completed 214 of 340 passes (63 percent). Barkley is rated as the No. 1 recruit in the nation by many scouting publications and services, and committed to USC. The only mountain left to climb – a CIF-Southern Section championship.

The Tritons now have six coaches with professional football experience. Impressive.

Said Tritons coach Eric Patton: "Pat brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our staff.  To have a coach who has played at the highest level is a great asset to our program. Having Pat coach our defensive line is a great addition to our staff and I am sure that the players will benefit from his experience, knowledge of the game and his coaching. We are excited to have Pat join the varsity staff."

The Register's USC blog is a good place to find out, especially since there are so many former O.C. high school stars playing for the Trojans and, more imporant, ocvarsity.com alum Adam Maya is on the colleges beat.

Take a look at what Adam wrote recently about two of last season's high school stars:

Click here to see his piece on Orange Lutheran's Blake Ayles.

Click here to see his piece on Servite's D.J. Shoemate.

But it takes awhile to get to an Orange County team in either set of rankings.

Part of the problem is perception, of course. Big, bad football players come from Texas or the inner-city, of course, not Orange County. (Though, check out a Mark Whicker column on Western High's Fili Moala, who has proved to be pretty tough at USC.)

Another part of the problem is that Orange County's best teams regularly beat up on each other (see Trinity League). Preseason rankings too often are predictions about what team will emerge as the best at the end of the season instead of a reflection of how teams will start the season. Just imagine the kind of year a Trinity team would have to have to run the table.

Finally, it seems as if some "experts" figure the talent level drops off considerably after Mater Dei quarterback Matt Barkley, who is considered the top recruit in the nation by many services. They foget the Division I talent at quarterback (Allan Bridgford to Cal and Clark Evans to Colorado, plus others) and several other skill position players who are quite skilled.

The good thing, of course, is that perceptions can be changed the only place they should: on the field.

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