Brandon Dart was about to leave for an elk hunting trip Saturday afternoon.
His wife and mother had flown up to watch USC play at Washington State in case freshman quarterback Jaxson Dart got in the game or needed any support one way or another. Brandon would stay back in Utah to first watch his younger children's athletic events with plans to then hit the road right around the time the Trojans kicked off Saturday.
He figured he'd listen to the game or watch it on his phone when he could while traveling to meet friends for a horseback-led excursion through the roadless Book Cliffs in eastern Utah, just north of Moab.
He, of course, did not figure that his son would take over at QB midway through the first quarter in Pullman, Wash., and go on to set a USC record for most passing yards in a Trojans debut, while completing 30 of 46 passes for 391 yards, 4 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.
"Literally, I had just closed the cover on my truck, I was getting ready to jump in and drive and all of a sudden I can just feel my phone buzzing. I looked down and my buddies are like, 'It's go time!' I'm like, 'What?'" Brandon Dart says, recapping a wild day for the family over the phone Saturday night, hours after USC's 45-14 win. "I missed the first drive and all that stuff, so I'm like, I'm going to hurry and run in just to see what's going on. Then I see him go in and I'm like, 'Oh ... my ... goodness.'"
Inside Washington State's Martin Stadium, the QB's mother, Kara Dart, was having an even more intense reaction seeing it unfold live, as Trojans starter Kedon Slovis was knocked out of the game on the opening drive, thrusting Dart into his first collegiate action.
"My first instinct was, oh my gosh, I think I'm going to vomit. Like, OK, here we go," Kara says over the phone Saturday night. "And then my mind goes through all of the pieces. The fact that it's pouring rain, which is probably not ideal for your first game, just being a true freshman and all of it. My mind went to all of that, but then it also goes to the other side of things where I know how much he's prepared, I know how hard he works, I know that he's a fierce competitor, so for him in his brain he wanted to be in the game. It's hard for him to be on the sideline. That is just a hard thing for him.
"We've talked about it each game how to balance the grit and the drive without making yourself go crazy, so I knew in his brain he felt ready to be in the game. In that sense, you have some peace. ... So my mind's going through all of this."
As if this week couldn't have gotten any more intense for the Dart family -- or the Trojans in general.
It was just six days earlier that Brandon and Kara were having brunch with Jaxson after coming to Los Angeles to watch USC's 42-28 loss to Stanford. They knew there would be ramifications from that game, but they didn't think head coach Clay Helton would be fired a day later.
That Sunday, after talking about it over brunch, Dart had decided to text Helton and reiterate that he had the team's support and assure his coach they would get everything fixed.
The next day Helton was gone, leaving the future of the coaches who had recruited Dart to USC also very much at risk.
Five days after that, Dart was holding the sword and celebrating with the Trojans marching band after turning an unexpected opportunity into a breakout performance.
There isn't much else that could bring about a more dramatic pendulum of emotions in such a short window.
"It was a crazy week for him -- well, for the entire team," Kara Dart says, putting it lightly.
One at a time, Dart's parents delivered their unique perspective on how the quarterback's week and stirring Trojans' debut unfolded.
