Daniels delivers JTKO in USC QB competition
We've seen this movie before.
It was exactly a week and a day into training camp when quarterback Ricky Town didn't show up for practice one Sunday in August. He'd already decided to transfer because, well, Sam Darnold.
Darnold had just arrived that summer whereas Town was an early enrollee and participated in spring practice. Even though there wasn't an open competition -- senior Cody Kessler was entrenched as the starter -- Darnold was so good, so soon, that there was no point in Town sticking around.
Three years later and here we are. This time USC is trying to decide between three quarterbacks for the starting job, including a true freshman who also happened to arrive in June. Today's scrimmage marked one week and a day into training camp, and JT Daniels' performance, in the Trojans' first full scrimmage in the Coliseum, was as memorable as any practice I've seen from a quarterback while covering the team over the past 15 years.
Another transfer seems inevitable.
Daniels will be USC's next starting quarterback. It's not official yet. But after completing 10 of 12 passes for four touchdowns, it was blatantly obvious he will (and should) be the guy. You can already call the fight -- by JTKO.
Of course, that's not what Clay Helton is ready to do. In fact, he said he doesn't plan to announce a starter until "sometime during that first game week."
His only promise was that he wouldn't go into the day of the first game without determining who will start.
"When I feel confident of who the guy is and I know our team's confidence in that person, our confidence as a staff, when that happens, it happens, and I don't have a crystal ball,” Helton said.
But he has two eyes. And he saw what I saw, and he knows much, much (much!) more than I know. And it wasn't hard to figure out what was happening.
Following shaky drives from Matt Fink and Jack Sears, Daniels, on his first play from scrimmage, threw a gorgeous pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown for a 50-yard completion, putting the ball just over the reach of Isaiah Langley and into the hands of St. Brown, who briefly bobbled it but managed to secure it as he landed inches in bounds. Three plays later, Daniels fired a strike to St. Brown for a 7-yard touchdown, the throw out of reach of a frustrated Langley as St. Brown made a sharp turn outside. Daniels knew where he was going with that ball and nothing could stop him.
On his next drive, Daniels whizzed the ball past the arm of a defensive back to hit Velus Jones behind the defense for a 40-yard touchdown.
For his third act, Daniels threw a 35-yard pass to the back of the end zone that looked like it could be trouble. It wasn't. The throw fell neatly in the arms of St. Brown, who made the leaping catch amidst two defensive backs for another touchdown.
Daniels led one more drive, and what happened next might surprise you: He threw another touchdown. To St. Brown.
This one came in a two-minute drill, and it followed a series of short completions. On more than one occasion I saw Daniels glance at the end zone but opt to go underneath. It's what the defense was giving him. Finally, he just took what he wanted. With the offense at the 15-yard line, Daniels pump-faked and unleashed a smooth lob to the corner of the end zone that St. Brown snatched out of the air above his back shoulder.
It almost felt unfair.
"I thought JT, for the first time in a live game situation, looked very comfortable," Helton said. "Didn't look like the situation of being in the Coliseum was too big for him. And I like the way he distributed the ball."
It was written in this space just this week that the QB competition, at least between Daniels and Sears, was pretty competitive. If you showed up at Howard Jones for the start of training camp last Friday and had never seen or heard of any of the quarterbacks, and knew absolutely nothing about them, you'd think Daniels and Sears were performing similarly over the past week. They don’t play the same, mind you. But they’d done equally well.
Saturday was a different story. Saturday was a submission. Saturday was Darnold vs. Town.
Also, Saturday mattered.
"This is like a preseason game in the NFL," Helton said afterward. "That's the way we approached it."
So, how did Daniels look?
"He's doing a nice job," Helton said. "Again, it's only Practice 8, it's one scrimmage. Obviously, everybody is going to come away impressed, but the work he's put in, I'm very proud of him because he's put himself in a competition."
No, Coach, with all due respect, he's winning it. He's going to win it. And he’s made the decision easy for you. That this was his eighth practice, when his peers both have more than 100 under their belt, only drives the point home further.
For the record, I totally understand Helton downplaying the significance of what Daniels did, of what he’s doing. I expected him to. The reality is there's no need for Helton to be transparent with us about how he truly feels at this stage in the process. It still is early. USC still has three weeks before the season opener, two weeks before its mock game, one week left of training camp.
A month is a long time to hold the attention of a roster nearing 100 players, without a game in the coming weekend but instead more than two dozen practices. You don't want to peak or become complacent in training camp. Open competition is a great carrot to hold in front of everyone, to drive them for the next three weeks until they are on the same field again, but playing an actual game.
"When you go through a training camp you have to look at the total sum of the camp and do what's best for your team in the moment," Helton said. "It's a long camp. We'll put the best guy out there in the moment and the guy that's performing the best."
It remains to be seen how Daniels will respond, something that he shares with his two challengers at QB as it relates to game experience. But he is clearly the most ready of the three to be in that moment. It's a notable accomplishment in and of itself for a kid who technically went through his first college practice just a week and a day ago.
"He's a very mature kid, both physically and mentally," Helton said. "The investment that he's made early, in the spring, of getting the playbook and studying it. The approach that he took in the summer of just shutting up and working and going through our player-run practices and learning from Matt and learning from Jack. You can see the investment that he's made.
"The goal of all of our freshman is to come in and not learn but compete when they come into camp, and obviously he's doing a nice job of competing."
In due time, Daniels will have officially won. And, if Saturday is any indication, so will USC. This should be some sequel.
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