Matt Barkley among 34 named to O’Brien watch list


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USC senior quarterback Matt Barkley was named to the Davey O’Brien Award preseason watch list, the Davey O’Brien Award Foundation announced Wednesday.

The award is given annually to the nation’s best quarterback. Thirty-four players were named to the list, including two others from the Pac-12: Washington’s Keith Price and Washington State’s Jeff Tuel.

Last season, Barkley rewrote the USC record books while leading the Trojans to a 10-2 record. He threw for 3,528 yards and 39 touchdown passes against just seven interceptions while completing more than 69 percent of his passes. He was a third-team All-American selection and second-team All-Pac-12 pick behind Stanford’s Andrew Luck. He threw three or more touchdowns in eight of the team’s 12 games in his third year as starter.

Last year the O’Brien Award went to Robert Griffin III from Baylor, who went on to be the second pick in the 2012 NFL Draft. Despite recently having several high-profile quarterbacks, including Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart and Mark Sanchez, no Trojan has won the award.