Jaxson Dart has his own history with BYU as he makes second start for USC
Leading into his senior year of high school, when he was still an overlooked prospect who had spent three productive seasons obscured at an under-the-radar football program in north-central Utah, quarterback Jaxson Dart received some mild interest from in-state BYU.
At that time, the Cougars were willing to take him if he'd accept a grayshirt offer, meaning he'd delay his football clock by a semester to help with the scholarship count.
Louisiana had been his best scholarship offer to that point, but it came with a short expiration date before the staff there was ready to move onto another QB if Dart wasn't willing to commit.
These were tense times for the young QB while working toward the biggest decision of his life.
"So at that time, my offers were Yale, Penn and a grayshirt to BYU," he told TrojanSports.com last January after signing with USC and recounting his wild recruiting journey. "... Kids would come up to me and they're like, 'Where you going?' ... 'Well ... I might go grayshirt at BYU.'"
A few games into his senior season at Corner Canyon HS in Draper, Utah, everything changed and the rest is history.
By the time Dart was working toward a final decision from his newfound bevy of big-time college options, BYU had fallen out of the mix as he would ultimately choose USC over UCLA.
Even still, though, those recruiting memories came back to Dart this week and will add extra intrigue to his second career start Saturday night for USC vs. No. 13 BYU in the Coliseum. (Much like in his first start last week vs. UCLA.)
He's expected to have a large contingent of extended family (cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc.) in attendance at the game.
"Yeah, definitely some things come along with it," he said Tuesday after practice. "I know a lot of guys on the team. BYU was actually the first school that offered me so I have a good relationship with their coaching staff. And just being a hometown kid, there's a little bit of ties with that and wanting to beat them for sure."
Also noteworthy, Dart was in the stands at BYU -- about an hour from his home -- when USC lost to the Cougars in overtime in Provo, Utah, two seasons ago.
He said he had no rooting interest at the time -- he was more of a Utah fan then so had no real affinity for BYU -- and back then he mostly saw the Trojans as an obstacle for the Utes. But it was a big game that interested him enough to make the drive out there.
"I was actually at that game, yeah. Honestly, the very first thing that I remember was walking out on the field and seeing [USC punter] Ben Griffiths for the first time. Their field's a little higher and I just remember thinking, 'That is the tallest punter I've ever seen in my life.' But I remember that one," Dart said, drawing laughs this week. "BYU's games are always super packed, they're fun to be at, so I just remember it was just like an intense game, kind of went back and forth and then obviously BYU was super excited to get that win. And we're going to try and take that back and get a little bragging rights."
That 30-27 USC loss just happened to be then-freshman quarterback Kedon Slovis' second career start, after he replaced injured starter JT Daniels as he ultimately went on to a breakout debut season.
Now it's Dart replacing injured starter Slovis, who misses a second straight game with a muscle injury in his lower leg. Of course, Dart had already begun his emergence before that, though, passing for 391 yards, 4 TDs and 2 INTs in a relief effort off the bench in Week 3 at Washington State and then rotating with Slovis vs. Arizona and Arizona State after returning from a torn meniscus.
Dart's first official start last week was not exactly as he would have envisioned it, as he completed 27 of 47 passes for 325 yards, 1 TD and 2 INTs in a 62-33 loss to UCLA.
"After watching film, I thought that there was a lot of things I did really well. I thought there were a lot of throws that I made that were difficult ones, so I was happy with some of those things. But overall, the loss, it really hurts, especially for me because I had really high expectations going into it and really wanted to win it," he said this week. "But it's a good learning experience for me. I thought that some of the mistakes that I made were just young, early mistakes that you make and you kind of move on from. You don't make them anymore in your career. So I would just take away that it was a learning experience for me and there's some things that I want to clean up and I'm excited to show this next week."
BYU gave Slovis fits two years ago by dropping eight defenders into coverage, as he threw 3 interceptions in a game that he too would grow and learn from.
Dart's main regret was an interception he forced toward the goal line late in the third quarter on a play that started at the UCLA 28-yard line after the Bruins had pushed their lead back to 16 points and the Trojans badly needed a response.
That said, Dart also was a major spark for the offense in that second half, completing passes of 28, 44 (TD), 37 and 33 yards, all to Gary Bryant Jr.
He's the future of the position for the Trojans -- the only question is whether he can do enough in the present to provide a late surprise in this lost season for the program.
"He did a lot of good things. Most importantly, that red zone interception is obviously a tough one to overcome. We had some momentum going in to score there. But again, he’s a true freshman," offensive coordinator Graham Harrell said. "I think that we all have extremely high expectations for him and he has extremely high expectations for himself. But at times, you’re going to make freshman mistakes. He did that. We've got to find a way to overcome that and learn from the mistakes we make and be better the next week."