Matt Barkley completed 13 of his first 14 passes on Saturday, including two touchdown throws -- Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Bowl games are sort of like politcal spin doctors: They have a lot more influence on public perception than they should.

Not only does a performance in a bowl game define a team or a player for that entire season, but it shapes the sporting public’s opinions for the next season.     A favorable matchup or one lucky play is enough evidence for experts and fans to draw sweeping conclusions, and those assessments seem to build a momentum of their own during the nine months until the next game.

Which leads us to the conclusions people will draw from the Emerald Bowl, namely that USC quarterback Matt Barkley had a pretty good freshman season and will be a star as a sophomore.   

Well, anyone who saw USC’s final five regular-season games knows the former conclusion is inaccurate, and, if you think this thing through, there are questions whether the latter will occur too.

But Barkley went 27-for-37 for 350 yards to help USC beat Boston College 24-13 in the Emerald Bowl at San Francisco’s AT&T Park, and since that was the last game of the season, that is the image that will stick until next September.  

This is not a condemnation of Barkley.   His physical tools are unquestioned, and it would not be surprising to see him develop into a top quarterback in the next year or two.    That would have been the case if he had gone 17-for-37 with four interceptions in an Emerald Bowl loss, too, but if that had happened, he would be labeled as a bust as a freshman who might never be the Trojans’ answer at quarterback.

Instead he is hailed as a future star, even though he threw two bad interceptions against Boston College, the second of which could have led to USC’s doom if Boston College had not fumbled the ball back to USC at the Trojans’ 6-yard line.   If BC had scored there and held on, the focus would have been on that pick instead of Barkley’s imminent stardom.

And because BC fumbled and USC went on to win by 11 points and finish the season 9-4, Pete Carroll is off the hook, at least for now.   Any objective assessment suggests Carroll should be considered one of the best college coaches in the country.   But if the Trojans had finished 8-5, the whispers would begin: Has Carroll lost his grib on the team?  Was he merely the beneficiary of extraordinary talent?

How many times could he afford to go 8-5 with a loss in something like the Emerald Bowl and not be in jeopardy of losing his job?  Twice?  Three times?  Fans remember only the most recent season. 

And they remember only the most recent game.   They conveniently forget that Damian Williams may turn pro and not be with the team next season.   He had 1,016 receiving yards this season, nearly three times the Trojans’ No. 2 receiver, and had 12 catches for 189 yards in the Emerald Bowl.    

And they may overlook the fact that three of the Trojans’ five starting offensive linemen, including all-conference players Jeff Byers and Charles Bown, will be gone.    The Trojans had one of the best offensive lines in the country and several standout running backs, and Barkley still had only moderate success.    He is not particularly mobile, seldom avoided a pass rush and often made poor decision when hurried.  What will he do next year behind a line that may not be as good?  And Joe McKnight may not be around as a running threat either.

So there are still questions about Barkley for next season.   But for the next nine months Barkley will be called the Pac-10′s next star, because he played well enough to win the bowl game.