USC QB JT Daniels has entered the transfer portal. What five teams would be a strong fit for him?
Get ready for the feeding frenzy.
JT Daniels was a five-star recruit out of USC quarterback training ground Mater Dei High School – Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley, Todd Marinovich – who was expected to be the next great Trojan superstar.
And now he has entered the transfer portal.
He left high school before his senior year, earned the starting job right away, and he went through the early growing pains as a too-young prospect being thrown to the wolves. In 2018, he hit close to 60% of his passes for 2.672 yards with 14 touchdowns and ten picks.
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But it was all supposed to come together in 2019 with offensive coordinator Graham Harrell running a pass-happy offense that was a perfect fit for Daniels. He connected on 25-of-34 passes for 215 yards and a touchdown with a pick in the opener against Fresno State before getting knocked out for the game and the season with a torn ACL. Kedon Slovis stepped in, put up massive numbers, and now Daniels is looking elsewhere to play.
What are the five best teams for him? Where should he be looking? There a two big factors in this.
1. Daniels is still getting healthy. He wouldn’t have been able to go in USC spring ball, but he was expected to be all-systems-go in fall camp. If there isn’t a college football season – or if it’s delayed – he’ll be that much healthier.
2. Is it possible he could be eligible right away? The NCAA has been hinting that it’ll go with the one-time transfer exemption for players without the year-long eligibility penalty. There are several places that could use Daniels right away, but there has to be some eye on the 2021 season in case the transfer rule doesn’t kick in, or if there’s a problem with the 2020 season.
Let’s assume the NCAA will run with the transfer rule exemption and Daniels will be allowed to play right away.
He’s not a runner, but he’s a 6-3, 210-pound passer with high-end skills and the upside to start from the moment he joins a new team.
Five schools that would be a good fit for Daniels are …
NEXT: 5 Possible Schools For JT Daniels
5 Possible Schools For JT Daniels
5. USC
The door is still wide open to return.
A whole lot of things can happen over the next several weeks and months in the transfer process, and one of them might be that Daniels wants to give it a shot to compete with Kedon Slovis to run the high-powered Trojan passing attack.
Jack Sears has left for San Diego State, and Thomas Fitts transferred out. The depth is lacking, but Vanderbilt transfer Mo Hasan is coming in to throw his hat into the ring.
Is Daniels more talented than Slovis? A bit, but Slovis had a year of experience to show what he could do, and he blew up over the back half of the campaign. However, he took a slew of big shots.
Daniels, though, will likely have enough big-name suitors to be able to blow off sitting on the bench and waiting his turn with the Trojans.
4. LSU
No, JT Daniels isn’t the next Joe Burrow. For one thing, Daniels was a much, much bigger recruit and get in the process, and secondly, it’s asking for the world to ever expect anyone to repeat what Burrow was able to do last season.
But there are enough fantastic parts back to the LSU offense to let Daniels come in and grow into the role over the next three years. He’d have to beat out Myles Brennan for the gig – a good recruit in his own right – and there’s a danger for LSU here. If Daniels signed on and won the job, Brennan would likely bolt.
Daniels wouldn’t be offered anything more than a chance to compete, but it would be worth the shot.
3. Texas Tech
Daniels was being schooled in the Texas Tech-like attack under USC offensive coordinator Graham Harrell, he appeared to have it down, and then the knee injury happened.
Texas Tech head coach Matt Wells might want a more mobile option than Daniels, but if he could get a big-time passing prospect to come in to run his offense, everything would change.
Alan Bowman is back for the Red Raiders, but he suffered a few major injuries over the last two seasons. Maverick McIvor is a terrific prospect, but he’s coming off his own health issues, and last year’s late season starter Jett Duffey has left the program.
Bowman is the presumptive starter, put Daniels would be plug-and-play.
2. Ole Miss
Ole Miss pushed up hard to get Daniels in the recruiting process out of high school, and new head coach has never seen a good player he didn’t want to bring into his program, so …
It would be a big call for Kiffin.
He has Matt Corrall and dangerous runner John Rhys Plumlee already in the quarterback stable, but Daniels would be an upgrade. The Rebel quarterbacks combined to complete just 56% of their passes last season for a mere 2,328 yards and 11 touchdowns with six interceptions, but that was under then-offensive coordinator Rich Rodriguez.
New Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach got his guy in Stanford transfer KJ Costello, and it’s possible Kiffin will make a big push to get his own star to keep pace in the state as well as the SEC West.
1. Michigan
The Shea Patterson experience wasn’t quite what Michigan fans were hoping for, but he was a wee bit better than you might think.
The former Ole Miss-turned-Michigan quarterback was a decent player for Jim Harbaugh over the last two seasons, but the program hasn’t been able to come up with that one big superstar passer to be the key differentiating factor.
While Ohio State has enjoyed the talents of Justin Fields, Dwayne Haskins, and JT Barrett during Harbaugh’s run with the Wolverines, Michigan has had Patterson, John O’Korn, Brandon Peters, Wilton Speight and Jake Rudock as the headliners.
They were all fine, but Daniels is the five-star talent who’s still growing into his game.
Dylan McCaffrey and Joe Milton are both promising options who were expected to wage a massive battle in spring ball to take over for Patterson, but there’s room for someone else to come in and upgrade the position.
That might be Daniels.
