Published Apr 22, 2020
Trojans Today - April 22: Daily roundup and NFL draft poll question
Ryan Young  •  TrojanSports
Publisher
Twitter
@RyanYoungRivals

**TrojanSports.com is excited to offer a special FREE TRIAL for new subscribers during this unique situation nationally. Sign up by April 30 and get unlimited premium access for free until Sept. 5 -- the expected start of the 2020 college football season. New subscribers can follow this link and use promo code USC2020. Returning/past subscribers can follow this link to sign in first and start here and enter the promo code.**

**This is a new daily morning segment at TrojanSports.com, as a way to recap the previous day, set the stage for the day ahead, highlight the best of social media and the best of this board.**

Advertisement

Question of the Day

The NFL draft starts Thursday night, and given the absence of any other sports, it is more anticipated than ever before. We'll have a thorough draft preview tomorrow morning, but let's poll the crowd on how high USC's surefire draft prospects are selected.

We'll start today with left tackle Austin Jackson, who is projected by most mock drafts to be a mid to late first-rounder. Tomorrow morning, we'll chime in on Michael Pittman, who is projected to be outside the first round but could always surprise.

**Go here to vote and track live results**

The polls are in ...

While there remains division on the message board about QB JT Daniels' upside and potential, the poll results to yesterday's question -- what will Daniels do in 2020 if he lands at another program with immediate eligibility -- revealed an overall optimistic outlook for the quarterback.

A majority 14 voters thought he'd show considerable improvement from his 2018 season and throw for more than 3,000 yards with a better touchdown-to-interception ratio, while 10 voters thought he'd play like a 5-star QB and put up at least 3,500 passing yards and 25 touchdowns.

Only 4 voters thought he'd end up sitting behind another QB somewhere biding his time, 5 thought he would only start part of a season or less due to competition from other QBs and 7 predicted he'd have a repeat of his up-and-down 2018 season.

I've made it well known I'm a believer in Daniels' upside and arm talent and that I expect him to flourish wherever he ends up next. I won't belabor those points, but for our outside audience reading this today, I will summarize very briefly why I feel that way.

For me, the 2018 season was what it was. No, Daniels didn't look like the next golden-armed Trojans QB, but I have to attribute some of that to the offense itself and the apparent lack of adjustments on a weekly basis from the coaching staff. It seems more than coincidence that down the stretch of that season, Daniels routinely looked sharp and proficient in the first half of games only for everything to come unraveled after halftime. To me, the dots connect easily there. Offensive coordinator Tee Martin was relieved of his play-calling duties midway through that season and then left the program entirely.

I remain convinced Daniels would have excelled in Graham Harrell's offense, and his 73.5-percent completion percentage and 215 first-half passing yards vs. Fresno State before his knee injury speak to that. He threw a really bad interception -- he surely would have thrown several more over the course of the season -- but he was also slinging the ball around the field on the money for the most part.

Enough from me, though. Listen to former USC QB Max Browne on our Trojan Talk podcast Tuesday offering his own sentiments on why Daniels will be a highly-sought-after QB on the transfer market.

Tuesday's links

Top tweets

USC DL coach Vic So'oto soon after the news of Korey Foreman's de-commitment ...

info icon
Embed content not available

Several recruits, like 4-star DT Marcus Bradley (Gaithersburg, Md.), 2021 4-star DE Shambre Jackson (Orlando, Fla.) and 3-star DE Nathan Rawlins-Kibonge (Portlant, Ore.) tweeted out the newest graphic from the USC recruiting department ...

info icon
Embed content not available
info icon
Embed content not available
info icon
Embed content not available

So, there was an earthquake last night ...

info icon
Embed content not available

Well, this is interesting ...

info icon
Embed content not available

Top Trojan talk thread

It was clearly our discussion about the Korey Foreman news and what it means for USC. Join in and share your thoughts here!