USC vs. Arizona State: Ranking Matt Barkley Among Active QBs

USC quarterback Matt Barkley is off to a fantastic start in 2011.  

Barkley has thrown for 892 yards, nine touchdowns and only one interception through three games this season.

His completion rate of 69 percent also speaks volumes about how well he's been performing.  

To put things into perspective, the Trojans haven't exactly faced world-beaters in Minnesota, Utah and Syracuse, but Barkley has still looked pretty impressive. 

Having one of the best wide receivers on the college level in Robert Woods certainly doesn't hurt your cause either. 

Due to Barkley's dazzling multi-touchdown, 250-plus yard performances, fans have to be wondering, "how high is Barkley's ceiling?" 

He's not Stanford's Andrew Luck, a hands-down favorite in the Heisman race right now. Barkley actually has one more touchdown than Luck, whom just about everyone expects to be the top pick in next year's NFL draft. 

Only Clemson's Tajh Boyd, Tennessee's Tyler Bray, Bowling Green's Matt Schilz, North Carolina State's Mike Glennon, Washington State's Marshall Lobbestael, and Houston's Case Keenum have more touchdowns than Barkley.  

On that note, Boyd is the only other quarterback besides Barkley that can say he has only thrown one interception this season. 

West Virginia's Geno Smith, one of the most overlooked signal-callers in college football, as well as Arizona's Nick Foles and Oklahoma State's Brandon Weeden, are three out of the five quarterbacks who have over 1,000 passing yards as of the time of this article's writing (with Glennon and Keenum being the other two).

With all those statistics being put into perspective, most folks would agree that Matt Barkley is a top-10 quarterback in Division I football.  

Given that USC doesn't face a true challenge until they square off against Standford in Week 8 in a game that could be an absolute shootout, expect Barkley and this USC offense to rattle off plenty more highlight reel-worthy plays this season.