Matt Barkley gave up a lot to come back for his senior year. (Shotgun Spratling/Neon Tommy)

He established himself as a bonafide Trojan legend, he gave up millions of dollars in exchange for said legendary college player status and he effectively gave up his dream of being drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft.

The last of these three things is a scenario that I don't think Matt Barkley ever envisioned.

Here are the top five reasons why Matt Barkley didn't go in the first round of the 2013 NFL Draft:

1. Hiring Tom Condon as his agent

This was Matt Barkley’s biggest mistake and it’s why I put it at No, 1. Barkley would’ve been better off hiring a friend or even a fellow student to hype him up to NFL general managers.

Now, I admit to being naïve as to how these things work, and I know that it’s entirely possible that Barkley signed with Condon when he was 14 years old, but nevertheless, this was a huge mistake.

Between fighting for dollars for bonafide first rounders like Tyler Eifert and Bjorn Woerner and burning up the phone lines looking for big money for free agents Elvis Dumervil, Victor Cruz and Dwight Freeney, when exactly did Barkley think Condon was going to make phone calls on his behalf?

Hint: He never was going to use up one of his unlimited minutes trying to push Matt Barkley to any team until Friday, at best.

2. His injury history

This one is also huge. Every big hit that Barkley took during his college career put him out of commission, in some form or another.

Most of the national pundits who just watch highlight clips to form their opinions are of the belief that Matt Barkley took a beating during his time at USC and kept on ticking.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The reality is that Matt Barkley rarely was hit during his time at USC. He was surrounded by All-Conference and All-American players on the offensive side of the ball and he had full play-calling/audible power. The downside of this autonomy is that every hit he took was a direct result of him either not calling the right pass coverage or not having the guts to audible out of the many horrible Lane Kiffin play calls.
  
3. Passing on being a top-10 pick last year

Matt Barkley isn’t 6-5, doesn’t have tree-trunk legs, a cannon arm or great footwork and yet he was surely a top-10 pick last year and arguably even a top-5 pick. It’s entirely possible that he even could’ve been drafted ahead of RG3 had he announced his intentions to come out early.

Instead, Barkley announced to the world that he and the Trojans had unfinished business to attend to, effectively telling NFL owners that a Heisman Trophy and a BCS Title were more valuable to him than being a top-10 pick.

Wealthy people don’t take rejection very well.

There’s nothing that billionaires despise more than perceived slights and second on their hate list is being wrong.

Barkley brought both of these into play with his decision to stay in college and he is still paying for it dearly.
 
4. His lack of leadership skills

This one is controversial, but I believe this to be a fact.

Many Trojan players were upset that Matt Barkley was doing in-game interviews on the sideline of a bowl game that he wasn’t even playing in, but this was a minor, if not public, issue compared to the overall performance of Barkley and the offense in 2012.

A huge part of being a leader is that the men fighting along side of you have to literally be afraid to let you down (e.g. Peyton Manning’s linemen, and before him Brett Favre’s linemen, fighting tooth and nail to not be the guy that gets their QB hit). Nobody on the O-Line fought with this kind of intensity for Barkley in 2012, not even lifelong friend Khaled Holmes (In fairness to Holmes, he was pretty dinged up over the last two years, but still).

Now, I’m not saying that Barkley can’t grow into a legitimate NFL leader, much like Drew Brees and Tom Brady did when they came into the league, but I am saying that his leadership skills in college left a lot to be desired. 

The true leaders of the Trojans during Barkley’s tenure were Matt Khalil, Christian Tupou and Rhett Ellison, all of whom left after the 2011 season.

By not leaving with them, Barkley exposed himself as just another player on the roster, leadership-wise. NFL teams put an inordinate amount of pressure on their quarterbacks, and if Barkley didn’t manage to get the most out of kids that looked up to and admired him, how in the world can an NFL team be confident that he can lead a group of independent-minded grown men?

5. Lane Kiffin

This one is obvious. Despite having been given all the leeway in the world due to taking on the tough job of leading the Trojans through the sanctions era, Lane Kiffin has been a complete bust at USC, 2011 not withstanding.

While his impressive portfolio of screwups is far too long to list here, the big one was changing the offense to revolve around Marqise Lee in 2012. Many fans and analysts don’t realize what a big change this was.

Barkley was forced to go from the quick strike offense that kept him untouched and upright for most of his USC career to a big-strike offense that relied on longer dropbacks and more downfield throws.

All the evidence you need is right there encompassed in the hit that ended Matt Barkley’s college career.

The play was going deep to Marqise Lee, but before Lee had even come out of his route, his quarterback was down and Barkley’s USC career was over.

Reach Staff Writer Ryan Nunez by email, or follow him on Twitter.