AP: Barkley, Forcier no ordinary freshmen QBs
 

Barkley, Forcier no ordinary freshmen QBs

By RALPH D. RUSSO (AP)

NEW YORK — Matt Barkley and Tate Forcier are freshmen standouts but in college football today, you can hardly call them precocious.

A couple of cool, California teenagers leading two of college football's most prestigious programs, Michigan's Forcier and USC's Barkley are part of a generation of polished passers who are arriving on campus better prepared than ever to play.

Between private tutors, passing camps, more advanced high-school offenses (and defenses) and early college enrollment, Barkley, Forcier and other elite quarterback prospects are practically being engineered to play the position.

Make no mistake, while there are plenty of well-schooled quarterbacks being pumped into college football these days, what Barkley and Forcier have done is exceptional. It's just that after two straight sophomore Heisman Trophy winners, Tim Tebow and Sam Bradford, the idea of a freshman quarterback hauling off the big bronze statue one day doesn't seem so farfetched anymore.

The 19-year-old, blonde-haired Barkley has led No. 3 Southern California to a 2-0 start, including an 18-15 victory at Ohio State on Saturday in which he directed a brilliant game-winning drive late in the fourth quarter.

The recruiting experts pegged him as the top quarterback in his high school class and he has the look of a future high NFL draft pick: 6-foot-2, 230 pounds, strong and accurate arm — a great match for the Trojans' prostyle offense.

Forcier, also 19, has lifted spirits at Michigan following a miserable 2008 season. He engineered his own memorable comeback victory Saturday, throwing a touchdown pass with 11 seconds left to beat Notre Dame 38-34, and has the 25th-ranked Wolverines (2-0) looking like Big Ten contenders again.

Forcier was a blue-chip recruit coming out of high school, too, but is different model than Barkley. Undersized (6-1, 188) but multidimensional, his quickness and speed make him a perfect fit for the Wolverines' spread offense.

Their physical differences aside, both play with confidence that belies their youth.

"He was in it, talking, communicating," USC coach Pete Carroll said of Barkley's performance in hostile territory. "I've said that a number of times, but a lot of times kids don't communicate real well. He was fine. He's just like he always was, and is."

Forcier plays with a smile on his face and doesn't get down when he makes mistakes.

"His make up is suited perfectly for that position," Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez said.

Talent helps, but both have been raised to be exactly where they are.

Barkley went to Mater Dei High School, in Santa Ana, Calif., the powerhouse football school that produced USC Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart. He also studied under Steve Clarkson, one of the first and most famous personal quarterback tutors in the country.

Clarkson, a three-year starting quarterback at San Jose State in the early 1980s, has worked with Leinart, Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Notre Dame's Jimmy Clausen.

Forcier is from San Diego and playing quarterback is a family tradition — one older brother was a backup for Michigan, the other for UCLA.

He has been training with Marv Marinovich, father of former USC quarterback Todd Marinovich, since before he reached his teens. Home-schooled, he played at Scripps Ranch High School, running a spread offense.

Like most young talented quarterback prospects, Barkley and Forcier have spent their youths constantly honing their skills.

"These guys are playing quarterback year-round, they're clearly further along then they were in my day," UCLA coach and former quarterback Rick Neuheisel said.

Still, it's rare for teams to rely on freshmen quarterbacks. Only four other teams have given freshmen QBs significant playing times this season, and that counts Boston College's Dave Shinskie, a 25-year-old former minor league baseball player.

That number could go up this week, with Neuheisel considering playing freshman Richard Brehaut to replace an injured starter.

"To play a freshman quarterback, if you're going to have a good team or a chance to be successful, you're going to have to have a lot of good players around him," said former Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer, who started Peyton Manning, Casey Clausen and Erik Ainge as freshmen and had winning seasons with all of them. "He can't be expected to carry the load. His job is to not lose the ball game."

So far so good for Barkley and Forcier, but that's not quite enough for Forcier. He wants to shoot down college football's conventional wisdom about freshmen QBs, the line that says the newbie is bound to screw up in a big spot and cost his team a game.

"I've been hearing that from everybody," he said. "That's motivation to push me and has made me want to prove everybody else wrong."

Forcier is very cool under pressure and I like that about him, but I still hate the gimmicky spread offense. I watched that entire game and it became predictable after almost two quarters; sweep to the right, fake sweep to the right throw to the right - it's sad, but he's definitely got huge talent.

Well I'll never really understand why a team like Michigan would run the spread.

neither do I, and I hate RR. Seeing them running that in the big house is just, just wrong. What we really needed was more D, the O was solid. That USC dude, man, he's totally cool under pressure...I suspect he'll go far, don't know about Forcier if he's stuck in the spread.

Forcier is a classic spread QB, he's undersized and moves around.

The reason I don't get why Michigan runs it is a team like that can get top notch players. The spread is for teams that don't get great recruits to help make up the difference...

I still fully believe down the road teams running the spread will see an affect in recruiting by kids who think they have NFL futures as it does hurt their development.

Like I said, gimmicky - and you're spot on - Michigan doesn't need to recruit undersized, under-talented players. Their line is laughably small, and forcier was ranked #16 in the country - he doesn't have to run spread to be successful. I just hate it, and it's goofy watching that shit in Ann Arbor.

Accusation:

Response:

Great Florida gets better talent than Tennessee does, the spread still hurts development for the pro game. Especially at QB...and you want an example..the Eagles don't even have Maclin on the field because he doesn't know how to run their routes.

Yeah, because teams like Oklahoma, Florida and Texas clearly couldn't get great recruits without the spread.

:rolleyes:

Which is my entire point of why those teams running the spread is reeruned, thanks for making my own point though.

We can go over this shit endlessly but as the NFL gets annoyed with these guys not being ready do to this system they may shy away like they did with option teams.

Tennessee gets great talent. The statement was that schools like Michigan who get NFL talent shouldn't run the spread. Florida gets NFL talent, runs the spread and so far the WRs that have played for Meyer and have gone on to the NFL look promising (both Harvin and Murphy had nice debuts).

Yeah, it's so reeruned that they run the spread. Soooo reeruned. So reeruned that Texas and Florida have 3 of the past 5 National Championships while USC has.... zero.

You should probably give it more than 1 game decide if they have "promising futures" but I'm sure the Eagles are thrilled that Maclin basically has to learn how to run every route in their playbook.

I'm not saying a player from the spread can't succeed but it stunts their development and puts them behind the curve.

Great Nebraska won titles running the option too, but the fact is things like that do factor into recruiting with kids that want to play at the next level.

So far the spread hasn't hurt kids transitioning from Florida to the NFL under Meyer, but it's still too early and the next few years will answer the questions.