On the Spot: Carroll's QB cred rides with the freshman

Players, coaches and teams with the most to lose this Saturday. While we're standing in awe of the many talents of Pete Carroll -- coach, surfer, role model, humanitarian, keyboardist and celebrity Twitterer nonpareil -- let's also remember that the man knows how to develop some quarterbacking talent, or at least to surround himself with assistants who can. Carson Palmer, after all, was almost written off before Carroll and Norm Chow swooped in and turned him into a Heisman winner and No. 1 draft pick. Even Matt Leinart, talented as he was, didn't set the world on fire in the spring of 2003 (by Carroll's own admission) and was initially pegged as a stopgap until uber-freshman John David Booty got up to speed. So how shocked you are by freshman Matt Barkley's ascent to the top of the depth chart depends mainly on how much stock you put in Carroll's continued insistence that Barkley is ready to take the reins full-time. Barkley got a head start by enrolling ear...