Barkley, Jones looking to prove themselves at combine

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS

Matt Barkley and Landry Jones made some tough calls last season.

Instead of taking first-round money and leaving school early, they decided to stick around, hone their skills, chase a national championship and improve their draft stock.

With the NFL draft about two months away, the two quarterbacks once billed as Heisman Trophy front-runners are now trying to enhance their chances of being selected early.

“I’ve learned a lot in this past year that you can’t teach in a classroom,” Barkley said Friday at the NFL scouting combine. “You have to learn through experience in regards to handling adversity at its peak. You have to get guys going in the locker room, in the huddle, on the practice field when you’re not playing for the postseason. It allowed me to step up and be that voice.”

It’s unclear whether that will help Barkley in a year in which there is no clear-cut top choice, even among the quarterbacks.

Scouts saw Barkley and Southern California’s shot at a national championship — and his chance for the Heisman — come crashing down in a season that went terribly wrong. Becoming the first quarterback taken in the draft took a hit when he sprained his right shoulder in a late-season loss to crosstown rival UCLA. Barkley never took another college snap, and though he acknowledged Friday the rehab program is on track, critics are already wondering why he won’t throw until his March 27 pro day.

Barkley also may find himself answering questions about a locker room dust-up that followed the Trojans’ Sun Bowl loss to Georgia Tech.

“It was a normal football locker room environment. That happens all the time, trust me. It happens all the time on teams across the country,” Barkley said. “It was nothing out of hand. It was guys exchanging words and wanting to set the record straight. But the captains, myself and some of the other seniors, we had everything under control.”

The concerns about Jones have nothing do with health.

In 2012, he actually threw for more touchdowns, a higher completion percentage and had fewer interceptions and a better efficiency rating than in the previous season. But the perception after Oklahoma fell out of the title chase was that Jones failed to improve his poise in the pocket or his footwork. His performance at the Senior Bowl (3 of 9 for 16 yards with two sacks) raised more red flags.

Jones believes the extra year in college has made him better.

“I think I showed the things that I wanted to improve on,” he said after measuring in at 6-foot-4, 225 pounds in Indy. “I shortened my motion and move around in the pocket a lot more than I have been.”