LOS ANGELES -- He was known as Matty Trojan.
Face of the program, four-year starter, and three-year captain. By doing that, Matt Barkley, his real name, became the first USC player in school history to be named a captain for three years.
When Lane Kiffin announced the USC captains for 2013, as voted on by members of the team, not one was a quarterback.
Wide receiver Marqise Lee, center Marcus Martin, along with linebackers Hayes Pullard and Devon Kennard, were the names the head coach announced, making it the first time since 2009 -- and second time in the last decade -- there is no quarterback among the USC captains.
"These guys usually that are named captains have played before and really are guys that they view as distinct starters and leaders of their team," Kiffin said.
Perhaps the uncertainty at quarterback has something to do with it. The situation continues to be in flux after Kiffin announced his idea for how he wants to use the quarterbacks against Hawaii without naming a starter.
Both are expected to play. Neither has much game experience.
"I don't think that there'd be any expectation that one of these guys would be named captain having not really played before," Kiffin said.
The head coach still is uncertain on how he is going to divvy up the game reps.
He says he will decide once the team gets to Hawaii on Tuesday who the actual starter will be.
The other guy will just have to wait his turn.
Kiffin says he doesn't plan to rotate the quarterbacks every series or every quarter for that matter.
At this point it doesn't sound very promising for the guy who isn't the starter.
"We aren't going to put anything set in stone about plays of quarters or series," Kiffin said. "We'll get a feel for how the game's going and make decisions as we go. We do that with a lot of positions."
