COLUMBUS, Ohio — Close does count in Horseshoes.
USC, the team that prizes its practice time, did something it hardly ever rehearses. It came from behind.

It won in the fourth quarter, a time when Trojan starters are usually waving to their girlfriends, and the walk-ons are putting up some numbers, and the Coliseum fans are cleaning off their grills in the parking lot.
In the previous four seasons, USC was 7-6 in games decided by seven or fewer points. That’s with Heisman Trophy winners and first-round draft picks under center.
Here, the Trojans trailed Ohio State 15-10, completely on merit. Their gains were incremental. Their poise was teetering. Their eardrums throbbed. And their quarterback never had played a collegiate game in front of dissenting strangers.
The final: USC 18, Ohio State 15, with Matt Barkley getting the ball on his 14 with 7:15 to go, retreating to the five, and then leading his elders downfield to Stefon Johnson’s run with 1:05 left.
“There are no words to describe Matt Barkley,” guard Jeff Byers said. “He goes to the loudest stadium I’ve ever been in. He gets the ball on the 14 and then we go backwards. And then he takes us down for the win. As a freshman. I mean, come on. He’s remarkable.”
Trust Byers. He’s 24. He arrived at USC in 2004. Barkley was in the eighth grade, not even at Mater Dei yet. Byers knew what Barkley had done because he could put this task, this frothing crowd of 106,033, up against all he’s seen. And not heard.
“I’m playing guard, right next to Matt, and I couldn’t hear him, couldn’t hear the calls, couldn’t hear the plays,” he said. “They think it’s loud at Oregon? Not even close. It was a struggle all night.”
In fact, everyone thought USC’s experienced, rangy offensive line would be Carroll’s biggest advantage on Saturday. It was, except it almost took until Sunday.
A sack by Devon Torrance dropped USC back to the 10. A procedure penalty dropped USC back to the five, where the end zone screamers could practically reach out and pull Barkley’s shoulder pads.
But then Joe McKnight ran for 11 “I had to do something,” he said, “because I’m the guy that gave up that sack” and Barkley found McKnight in the middle for a 21-yard first down.
That seemed to unshackle the Trojans, and Johnson scored 11 plays later.
“It was nice to punch it in and hear that silence,” Barkley said.
There was precious little warning of this. Except for Chris Galippo’s early interception return to the Buckeyes’ 2-yard line, USC never started a drive outside its own 26. Four of Jon Thoma’s punts for Ohio State wound up inside the Trojans’ 20-yard line, and USC never returned one.
After three quarters, USC had run 54 plays for 223 yards. Barkley did throw one interception and wasn’t always pinpoint and didn’t get a ton of help from his catchers.
And Ohio State smartly punted USC back to the 10 in the third quarter and came away with a safety, a field goal and a 15-10 lead.
“We spent all night trying to adjust to what they were doing up front,” Byers said. “They didn’t come with the stuff we practiced against.”
“Half of their line was playing a Bear front and half of it was playing an Under front and they were stopping our outside zone running plays,” offensive line coach Pat Ruel said. “But at the very end, that’s how we were moving.
“But the field position was a factor all night. When you’re on your side of the 50 you can’t make mistakes. That’s why I was so impressed with Matt in this atmosphere. You saw (Ohio State quarterback) Terrelle Pryor in our atmosphere last year (a 35-3 loss).”
Ruel laughed. “Yeah, Matt acts like a junior. He doesn’t know everything yet, but he’s getting there.”
Galippo, a student of USC grid history, also noticed.
“(Mark) Sanchez, (Matt) Leinart, Carson (Palmer) ... I don’t know if any of them could have done it better,” he said.
What really impressed Ruel was Barkley’s knack for butting heads to get the longest short yards.
Barkley, a robust 6-foot-2 and 230, converted all three sneaks.
“We saw we could get three yards on that every time,” Ruel said. “Yeah, I’m the best coach of the quarterback sneak in the business. But when you’re handing off around the line of scrimmage, anything can happen.”
Finally, something happened when it needed to happen, when Pete Carroll gathered the offense when the night seemed most hopeless and said, “This is your defining moment. How cool would it be to go down the field and win this one?”
Eighty-six yards later, it was about 62 degrees, and quiet enough to hear a young quarterback hit the ground, running.