Matt Barkley Leads Pac-10 Quarterback Race After Opening Weekend

In the conference where many of the nation's best college quarterbacks will toil this season, which Pac-10 passer had the best showing in the season's first week?

Here's a ranked order of the top five performances:

1. Matt Barkley, USC. The sophomore was the brightest thing about USC's trip to Hawaii to open the Lane Kiffin era. He was efficient and opportunistic -- 257 passing yards and a school-record-tying five touchdown passes. No interceptions. No major mistakes. A run of seven straight completions to open the game. He was poised and ready to lead. And the pressure is on for him to stay that productive every week after USC's too-generous defense was exposed in Honolulu. Looks like USC is going to have to win some shootouts.

2. Andrew Luck, Stanford. So the Cardinal was playing Sacramento State and that doesn't exactly present the stiffest challenge, but the redshirt sophomore passed for 316 yards and a career-high four touchdowns in two-plus quarters, before giving way to backup quarterback Alex Loukas late in the third. He threw for 301 yards and all four scores in the first half, taking care of business early. Luck led the Cardinal on scoring drives six times in Stanford's first seven possessions. In the first game of the post-Toby Gerhart era, Luck showed he deserves to be the guy at the top of the marquee.

3. Nick Foles, Arizona. The Wildcats opened on the road against Toledo on Friday and Foles had a pretty darn good night, completing 32 passes for 360 yards and two touchdowns. His 86.5 completion percentage was a record for a quarterback against Toledo. But this wasn't supposed to be hard and he wasn't necessarily the star of the day. That mantle went to receiver Juron Criner, who caught 11 passes for 187 yards and a touchdown.

4. Jake Locker, Washington. Opening on the road at BYU was perhaps the second most difficult task in the opening week of Pac-10 play, save for Oregon State's game at TCU. The stats are respectable (20 of 27 for 266 yards). He threw for one touchdown and ran for another. But Locker couldn't get the Huskies on the board in the second half after a strong start and missed opportunities for big third- and fourth-down completions in the second half. The Huskies lost 23-17, the program's 13th straight road loss. If Locker is the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft and the man who leads Washington back to a prominent place, that streak has to end soon.

5. Kevin Riley, Cal. Again, the Bears opened against UC Davis, which is bound to make the fifth-year senior look pretty good, but Riley didn't look as good as he could have (see Andrew Luck, Stanford). He was 14 of 20 for 258 yards and three touchdowns. But he had a few miscues, including a fumbled snap and a pair of penalties on the same drive.