USC interim head coach Donte Williams stated clearly early in the week that he wanted to keep Arizona in the dark about his quarterback plans and thus wasn't going to tip his hand as to if or how much freshman Jaxson Dart would play.
As it turns out, the Wildcats weren't the only ones kept in suspense.
USC starting center Brett Neilon was asked Saturday night when he learned that the Trojans planned to rotate starter Kedon Slovis and Dart throughout the game.
"Actually, just when they put Dart in. I didn't know," he said. "But we expect both to produce."
And both did. Slovis started and completed 15 of 21 passes for 204 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception, while Dart came into the game for USC's fourth series, at the start of the second quarter, and later played in the fourth quarter while completing 12 of 18 passes for 109 yards, 2 TDs and 0 INTs in a 41-34 win.
It was Dart's first action since tearing the meniscus in his right knee back in Week 3 at Washington State, when he came off the bench after an injury to Slovis.
As for how the QBs were told of the plan for Saturday?
"They just told me that Jaxson would be in a few series in the game," Slovis said, adding that he was told Friday, first by Williams and then in a conversation with offensive coordinator Graham Harrell.
Dart gave the same timeline of events.
"I talked to Graham last night and he gave us a heads up of what was going to happen, just to prepare, and I just tried to do with it the best I can. When I was in the game, I was able to execute," Dart said. "There was little conversations about it during the week that we'd have individually with the coaches and then everything was just kind of final [Friday], so I was just preparing this whole week like it was going to happen."
Williams said among the coaching staff the plan was finalized after Dart was fully cleared on Tuesday.
Initially, Dart was to come in the third series of the game, but Slovis led touchdown drives on each of the first two possessions, including a 62-yard deep strike to Gary Bryant Jr. on the second play of the second series, and thus was brought out again for the third series.
Dart then played the next two series -- leading touchdown drives on each -- before Slovis returned at the end of the second quarter and delivered another touchdown on a 15-yard pass to Bryant to cap a 75-yard drive in 2:04.
Slovis started the third quarter and threw an interception as Arizona linebacker Anthony Pandy cut in front of his target and returned the pick 37 yards for a touchdown. The coaches stuck with Slovis on the next two series, which produced one field goal, and then Dart came in for the first two series of the fourth quarter.
The quarterbacks said they didn't know how the plan would play out over the second half.
"Oh, no, just kind of played out that way," Dart said when asked if he knew he’d be back in during the fourth quarter. "Honestly, I have no idea. I was just told I was going to go in the game and it just went from there."
Said Slovis: "I was just waiting for a coach to tell me if I was going in or not."
Williams and Harrell both said the plan was set for the full game and they stuck to it, even when Arizona closed to within 38-31 late in the fourth quarter and Dart still came out for the next series instead of the veteran Slovis, who would take over for the final series as USC ultimately ran out the clock.
"It was already planned for [Dart] to come in at that moment of time in the game. So it was already planned that he was going to play the fourth quarter and he went out there and he did that," Williams said.
Said Harrell: "I just had a plan going in and didn't vary from it. That's the thing -- I've got confidence in both of them no matter what the situation is. Like I said, it's not like, 'Oh it's tight, so we're going to play this guy.' ... If we have a plan, I was just sticking with the plan and my plan was to play him on that drive. I don't really care what the score was, we were going to play him. Because like I said I've got a ton of confidence in either one of them. If either one of them are in the game, winning, losing, if we need to go score we expect to go do it with either one of them."
So what's the plan moving forward? That, Williams wasn't willing to share.
"We'll continue to do what we need to do to win a football game. That's what we felt we needed to do to beat Arizona. So we'll look at the gameplan and see what we need to do to beat Arizona State," he said.
Neilon, who was snapping the ball to both of them, said it was ultimately no issue that he didn't know ahead of time who was going to be receiving those snaps.
"It doesn't really affect us when they both play at a high level and they operate really well," he said. "Dart plays like a veteran and obviously Kedon's started a lot of games. There's really no difference in terms of what the O-line has to do, so it doesn't really affect us."
It does affect the QBs, though.
Especially Slovis, who is a three-year starter and was a first-team All-Pac-12 selection last season and projected by some coming into this season to be a potential first-round NFL draft pick.
He was candid and honest in sharing his thoughts after the game Saturday night, acknowleding that he had some questions when the plan was told to him in those conversations with Williams and Harrell.
"I wanted to know why, honestly. Not to take away from Jaxson, he's a great player, but I just wanted to know if it was something I was doing to kind of make this happen or what the reasoning behind it was," he said. "... I don't know how much I can really say, but my question to him was, 'Is it something I'm doing?' And he was like, 'No, we just want to get certain things in the game with Jaxson.'"
Slovis has passed for 2,022 yards, 11 TDs and 7 INTs this season, as his numbers have dipped from the last two years, but he's also playing behind two redshirt freshman offensive tackles who have struggled and without the same depth of proven playmakers at receiver as in recent years.
Dart, one of USC's prized recruits in this freshman class, won over many fans when he came off the bench to pass for 391 yards, 4 TDs and 2 INTs at Washington State, playing the second half of that game on the torn meniscus that would require minor surgery and keep him out until he was able to ramp up his practice work the last couple weeks.
When Dart came in the game for the first time Saturday, the fans started cheering and chanting his name.
He capped a 15-play, 96-yard drive with a 2-yard TD to Drake London, and then followed on his next series with a 6-play, 62-yard drive that included passes for 11 and 19 yards to Tahj Washington and a 6-yard TD to London.
When Slovis was pulled from the game initially, he had been 10-of-12 passing for 157 yards and 1 TD. He didn't have quite the same success upon reentering the game in the third quarter.
"It's definitely something to get used to. It's hard to kind of stay in a rhythm, stay fresh, engaged, and the defense adjusts too, you know small things," Slovis said. "That's something I have to get better at, like on that pick that guy kept playing outside slant more and more but that happened when I wasn't in the game. And I still have to read it out, but that's something I can help myself out when I'm not in constantly."
Slovis was warming up on the sideline with Dart before the freshman replaced him in the game, and Dart said Slovis has been nothing but supportive of him.
"Awesome. Me and Kedon have always been super supportive of one another. We have a really good relationship off the field, which I think helps," Dart said. "And so we were super supportive of each other, we'd talk through things, what we saw when we were out on the field, so we were able to help each other out."
As any confident QB should, both feel they are the best man for the job. It will be interesting to see how it plays out moving forward.
"I was just jacked to be playing again. It's so hard just watching and not being able to participate. Sometimes you feel like you could help the team out and you're just not able to do that," Dart said. "And then just like personally, I love the game so much and I came to 'SC for football. So just being able to get back on the field with the guys, it was super exhilarating, and being back in the Coli, being the first time I've played in the Coliseum in a real game was an awesome experience."
Said Slovis: "It's tough. Obviously, you want to be in and you think you give your team the best chance to win, but again, that's coach's decision. You let coach kind of make the best decision for the team at the time."
