Junior signal caller shines at NorCal NIKE Camp

There were several talented quarterbacks at the NorCal NIKE Camp this past weekend. There is some nice depth in the rising senior class but the best college prospect in the group may have been rising junior Matt Barkley who will likely be sitting on double digit scholarship offers by the time the summer rolls around.

Barkley, 6-2.5, 220 pounds has been getting major hype since his freshman season when he started for state power Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei. The quarterback had an all-state underclass season as a sophomore and after seeing him up close at Stanford on Saturday, he looks ready to explode this coming season.

Barkley has all the physical tools to excel at the next level. He has a live arm, spins it well and is accurate. He has been well coached and is very solid mechanically with his release and in his drops.

On top of all that though, we love Barkley's makeup and natural leadership skills. He has the personality and work ethic that his teammates will want to rally around and he doesn't have an ounce of primma donna in him that you see in a lot of quarterbacks who are hyped at such an early age.

"I had a good time at the camp and enjoyed myself,"Barkley said. "It would have been nice to stay with the top group there but the underclassmen were moved to throw to the running backs and that was fine. There were some talented backs and I'll just have to wait my turn until next year."

Following the camp, Barkley made the short road trip to Berkeley to check out Cal and picked up scholarship offer No. 4.

"Yeah, Cal offered me while I was there checking out the school, that was exciting," Barkley said. "Colorado, Florida State and Stanford had already offered. I was talking with their QB coach, Kevin Daft and he told me they were offering.

"I'm excited about all these offers but it's still so early for me in the process and I'm not even going to think about naming favorites or anything like that. I'm open to everyone and plan to take my time with making my decision, I'm still just a sophomore so I have a lot of time.

"I do plan on taking some unofficial visits in August but at this time, I really have no idea where I'm going to go. It's going to be a busy summer for me with working out with my team and playing a lot of passing league. We have a break in early August though so I'm going to use that time to take some visits and then it will be time to get serious about our football season.

"It has been awhile since we've won at Mater Dei but we have a lot of talent coming back and I'm looking forward to this season. Hopefully we can bring the tradition of winning titles back to Mater Dei this year.