There has been much reaction to USC coach Clay Helton's suggestion that it could take all of the preseason for he and the offensive staff to formally decide on a starting quarterback.
Not from sophomore QB and incumbent starter JT Daniels, though.
"I'm learning the offense, just trying to execute it as best as I can for the team every single day. There's not too much time I think anybody really spends thinking about, 'Oh man, what if this competition keeps going on?'" he said Tuesday after the Trojans' fourth practice. "We're just coming out and playing football."
New offensive coordinator Graham Harrell qualified Helton's comments a good bit in his first interview of the preseason, saying he doesn't think the QB decision can extend that far. He feels the staff needs to give all the QBs at least a week and a half and "at that point hopefully we'll, if not narrow down to one, at least narrow down to two."
Regardless of whether an official announcement comes sooner or later, though, Helton is trying to enforce the message that every job on the team is up for competition at all times. That has done little to sway the general presumption that Daniels, the 5-star prospect who started 11 games as a freshman, will retain the job, but the QB did well sticking to the party line nonetheless.
"Just come in and compete. He said that at the beginning of spring and he's maintained his position -- every [spot] on the team is up for competition," Daniels said. "… It's a whole new culture change in the team. You've got to compete every day and I think that's how it is for the rest of my life."
Everyone knows that Daniels arrived at USC with mountains of hype heaped upon him before he even went through his first college practice, and that what followed was an inconsistent and largely underwhelming debut season in which he completed 59.5 percent of his passes for 2,672 yards, 14 touchdowns and 10 interceptions on a 5-7 Trojans team.
It's not just the inconsistencies of 2018 Daniels has to address on the field this month, though -- it's the adjustment to a totally different offensive system and to a new coordinator in Harrell who has been candid that he needs more from Daniels in certain areas.
Harrell often tells it as it is, and he delivered a pretty frank comment Tuesday when asked in what areas he's seen Daniels come the furthest since the spring.
"More than anything, I think JT, he probably had the most room to improve as far as like becoming a leader," Harrell said. "But he's probably taken the biggest steps in that aspect because he had room to improve. That was probably what we told him the most that he needed to improve on coming out of spring was being a leader, getting that unit going and I think Double-A [strength coach Aaron Ausmus] put him in positions to be able to lead this summer and he's done a nice job of it out here so far."
In addition to trying to better embrace that intangible role required of the position, Daniels has also acknowledged he's embraced a greater focus on taking care of his body. He looks noticeably slimmer and more fit from even the start of the spring, and he indicated that he learned some other lessons in that regard going through his first college season last fall.
"I think I've focused a lot more in my own time on keeping my body recovered. I spend a lot of time in the training room this camp compared to last camp. You know, I didn't know about that," he said. "I can definitely notice it helping me in terms of how I feel and how I'm functioning."
In terms of how he's functioning in the offense, Daniels has looked mostly sharp so far through four practices. He threw a pick-6 to cornerback Olaijah Griffin on Saturday, but he's generally been on target and he made one of the throws of camp to this point on a perfectly-timed deep shot down the left sideline that dropped right into Michael Pittman's arms without him having to reduce his stride at all.
The downfield shots were hit and miss for Daniels last season, but that has not been the area of primary focus for him in learning Harrell's system. The first major challenge early in the spring was learning how to operate the hot routes -- quick adjustments in the face of an oncoming blitz -- and get in sync with his receivers in those situations.
"It was something that was tough the first week we put them in in the spring -- you know, a bunch of guys that have never worked on hot routes. Me personally, I never [played] in a system that had built-in hot routes," he said. "I think the wideouts have done an amazing job of learning if I'm hot on this play or not. It's starting to come a lot easier."
The other major adjustment has been embracing the pace of Harrell's uptempo offense that puts a priority on minimizing time between snaps and maximizing total offensive plays in a game.
Harrell was clear in the spring that all of his quarterbacks needed to improve in that regard, but Daniels specifically has been known as an analytical quarterback who was detailed in his pre-snap reads.
He insists it hasn't been a challenge, but it's no doubt been a difference from how he's been developed at the position.
"I've always been that way, but it's not like it's a huge shift where I'm changing everything about me," he said. "I completely buy into how we play with our tempo, I love the way that we play. I'm not spending 20 seconds before the play ID'ing everything and setting protections and all that. I'm just coming up and playing football. It wasn't a huge adjustment.
"While everyone's getting set, I'll do a couple basic mental checks, but I'm telling the linemen the play and then I'm snapping it."
If there's such minimal thought required or desired between snaps, Daniels was asked what is the mental process he does go through before each play and how often does he know pre-snap which receiver he's targeting?
"It all depends play to play. Some plays there's a No. 1 progression no matter what the look is. For the most part, I think it's like that. Based on the look, sometimes I can choose what side I start. But it's pretty simple," he said. "It's designed to not make you overthink and analyze everything."
He further noted that with continued immersion in the system, he's developing a mutual understanding with his receivers on how they handle the hot routes, what way Pittman likes to break on a certain route vs. how Tyler Vaughns might do it. Harrell has told his receivers to "find the grass," meaning there is some liberty in the route running for the wideouts to do what they need to do to get open.
That requires the quarterback's anticipation to be in sync, of course.
"Definitely just the more times I run it, the more reps I get, I think the more I start to really learn how the offense functions," Daniels said.
Freshman Kedon Slovis has been as impressive as any quarterback in camp so far, continuing his strong spring. Even as the youngest of the group, he's probably the most likely to give Daniels any true push -- redshirt sophomore Jack Sears has struggled to start camp -- but it's hard to envision any scenario where Daniels isn't taking the first snaps Aug. 31 against Fresno State.
It is possible, though, that a strong camp from Slovis reduces Daniels' margin for error.
And that's exactly how the coaches want every player thinking this camp.
"Especially stepping into a new system, everyone's coming in on an even playing field. So it's going to make you either play well or someone else is going to pass you up," Harrell said.
Daniels says that only makes sense.
"I think everybody feels like they have to earn their job," he said. "If you're in a competition, you've got to go and win the job, right?"
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