Corp To Miss Time With Knee Injury

For the second consecutive year, a USC quarterback will miss a sizable portion of training camp with a knee injury. Last August, then-starter Mark Sanchez, now with the New York Jets, was out for a couple of weeks with an injured knee, and now projected starter Aaron Corp is expected to miss anywhere from 1-2 weeks after an MRI showed a crack in his left fibula according to Scott Wolf of the Los Angeles Daily News.

Corp had injured his knee previously during Monday’s practice when a teammate rolled into his left knee during a scrimmage drill. While the the sophomore signal-caller missed yesterday’s practice, he was able to play immediately following the injury on Monday.

Now, with Corp out due to injury, freshman Matt Barkley assumes the starting role, after being the team’s clear-cut number two starter with Arkansas transfer Mitch Mustain a distant third. Even before the injury, it had been rumored that Barkley could overtake Corp for the starting role this camp.

Last year, Sanchez was able to return with plenty of time left to assume the starting job, but this year appears to be a bit different. For one, the competition between Corp and Barkley is far closer than the competition was between Sanchez and Mustain last season. In large part, Sanchez was “the guy,” while the same could not be said for Corp after Barkley had been playing so well.

If it takes Corp a while to return to the field, I think it’s quite possible that Barkley takes the starting job and runs with it.