Recently USC has named a true freshman as its starting quarterback. This is not a common thing to occur at USC because only once before has a true freshman been named the starting quarterback at USC. JT Daniels was the top recruit of the 2019 class, until he reclassified to class of 2018. This means he is actually still supposed to be in high school. Daniels played his high school career at Mater Dei located in Santa Ana, California. Mater Dei is a power house in the world of high school football. Daniels started at QB for 3 years at Mater Dei and carried them to a national ranking of 17 in 2015, 3 in 2016 and 1 in 2017. JT Daniels is one of 3 quarterbacks to be named the starter who also attended Mater dei. His stats in his 3 years playing high school football are as follows.
Total Passing Yards
12014
Total Passing Touchdowns
152
Interceptions
14
Total Rushing Yards
557
Total Rushing Touchdowns
13
Completion %
68%
These stats are just insane for a high school quarterback. His stats are way above the national average according to MaxPreps. The reason Daniels left high school early is he believes he has already proven himself at the high school level. The whole reclassifying thing may not make sense but to simply put it if you are a great football or basketball player you can skip your senior year of high school if you have finished your core curriculum. Daniels has some pretty big shoes to fill in USC after Sam Darnold being drafted to the Jets and very high expectations for the USC team as a whole after finishing ranked 12th in the nation. I believe Daniels will have a great career at USC and will go onto be drafted into the NFL.
By Andrew Kalb