Van wrote:The rest of his year and much of what he'd already done that year wasn't nearly on the same level, but that Oregon game would have gone a long way towards solidifying his status had he just continued on that same arc for the rest of the year...and not gotten hurt.
What he had "already done" that year obviously wasn't of any concern to you at the time you made your prognostication. Only now, after the fact, are you bringing it up as a reason he dropped in the draft.
The "rest of the year?" What the hell are you talking about? He only played two more games after that point. One resulted in an easy win and in the other he had pretty good numbers despite the loss. In any event, two whole games doesn't hurt anybody's draft stock, unless they set unbreakable records of suckitude.
By his standards and NFL top-pick standards he had a bad year. His TD/Interception ratio was way off, and he didn't win any big games. His junior year he was dominant while winning all those games (except the Stanford game) and he looked every bit as good as Andrew Luck did in their head-to-head matchup. He just didn't look like that for the majority of his senior year, and he capped it off by getting the worst sort of injury a QB can get heading into the draft.
Third nationally in passer rating, which encompasses everything. That's not "bad" by anybody's standard. The only reason he didn't win more big games is because his defense wasn't worth a shit.
It was certainly more his overall meh senior season that did him in.
So then why didn't you say that on November 4th, 2012? You seemed to leave that part out when you were tongue-fucking his taint. Talk about revisionist history. Or are you really suggesting that two whole mediocre performances after the Oregon game dropped him from a top ten pick to a 4th rounder? Oh yeah, coupled with that "career-changing" injury.
Except for the fact that that same average arm and athleticism would have landed him a top ten pick following his junior year and a #1 overall pick a few days ago, had he just looked like the 2012 Matt Barkley. Everyone agrees that his arm strength is far more than sufficient to make all the NFL throws. Again...Peyton Manning...Drew Brees...Tom Brady...ad nauseum. A huge arm is one of the very least important components of successful play in the NFL. What's between a guy's ears is far more important, and no one had any questions about his leadership abilities, intelligence, aptitude, and overall fundamental skill-sets.
At that point in Barkley's college career, his praise was all based on media hype, nothing more. Guys like Kiper and McShay blowing his cock. He hadn't been officially evaluated by any NFL scouts, gone through the combine, gone through a pro day, etc. 2011 was an exceptionally good class for QBs, there's no guarantee he would have even sniffed the top 10. The very fact he came back probably tells you all you need to know about what he heard from his advisers. In any event, we'll never know. What we DO know, however, is that when he went through the actual draft process, he was graded out as nothing more than an average talent in what is considered to be one of the worst QB draft classes of all time. Sorry, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.
Relatively speaking, he just saw everything fall apart his senior year. No one was expecting it: not me, not you, not M2, not Lane Kiffin, not the NFL scouts. He needed a lot more of those Oregon games and many fewer UCLAs.
I love how when you're right, you're right. When you're wrong, there's some logical explanation.
I
Was
Wrong
Come on, it's not that hard.
