USC held a light practice today. It’s been a little odd through seven practices how true freshman Jack Sears has gotten few snaps with the No. 2 offense. Obviously, USC wants Matt Fink to be the backup. But as I’ve repeatedly said, if Sam Darnold suffered an injury that forced him to miss 3-4 games, there would be plenty of debate within the program because Sears is viewed as the long-term solution.
The question is how many weeks will it take him to get ready? Especially without many snaps in practice.
UPDATED: Sears did not even take a snap Monday in 11-on-11 situations.
I will place my bet on the coaches and let the Monday Morning quarterback aka Wolf chant away.
Hi John, coaches deserved their benefit of the doubt. I agree. However, every coach has a different style. In this argument, I wish they have allowed a better competition among quarterbacks. Haven’t said that I don’t think we have a backup quarterback that is going to wow anyone yet. I hope Sears or Fink proves me wrong.
They probably don’t want to transfer being that the ranks are thin behind Sam. It is a lot like the situation with Max Browne last year.
This is where Helton needs to change. He handed Browne the job last year ” because he had put in his time ” even though everyone knew he was inferior to Darnold.
Sears needs to get plenty of reps, Fink is not going to get it done. And with the distinct possibility that Darnold leaves after this year, it’s even more important that he gets reps AND playing time
I get your point ‘but’ Helton was dealing with his first full year as head coach and yes hopefully he’s (Helton) learned from last year what not to do.
Green would be the answer if Dwenils went down long term.
It would make me happier If Jalen were taking a couple of snaps every practice.
He’s still on the team?
Ha! You’d never know it —-but, yeah.
Playing wide receiver. Not really tearing it up right now, huh?
Darnold needs to develop connections with his new receivers. That’s priority #1. USC’s #2 QB will be named when the first big depth chart comes out.
Helton’s learned his lesson, I’m betting. He’ll name the kid who will give SC the best chance to win games if Darnold goes down. No politics this time.
Remember, Swann’s around too. He went through this Helton QB dedacle last season and watched as STAN beat our brains in before he had the big sit-down with Helton. That’s another reason I think Helton will know how to handle this better this year.
Besides, Darnold isn’t going down. He will be leaving after another 14-15 games, uninjured and the NFL’s most likely #1 pick.
To me, backup and next starter are two different things. I would say a valuable backup is the guy who’s around four or five years, knows the play book as well as the coaches and can execute the game plan (although scaled down). It didn’t hurt Sam any to redshirt as a freshman, and shouldn’t hurt Sears any. Fink will probably, still be here to back up JT Daniels when he gets here too.
After watching films of warm ups, I think Sears is bored with the monotony of his role and not playing this year. He’s a gamer as seen in his high school film. If he was thrown into the starting role now the team would struggle and lose some games but by, say, the sixth game Sears would be contributing more. He can get the ball out fast enough and with power and arguably throws a better long ball than Darnold. Once he is given a real role, scout team QB, rather than the bystander role, he can contribute to making the defense better and keeping the starter and backup sharp. A proverb is that a “prophet is never accepted in his hometown”; to wit, a third string QB is never accepted in his home team as starter material. The focus shifts onto five star high school players as the future when the future is right in front of them. Sears has better film than the future wanna-bees. He’s a better athlete than Darnold. A football team is like a symphony orchestra where no matter how good one player is it is team play that counts. Sears doesn’t want to play in some orchestra for those learning how to play instruments, he wants to play in the big time of the LA Symphony Orchestra of football – USC. He will make a great First Violin.
the Dummies IGNORED you last year, Scotty, when you were screaming for Darnold to be the starter all during summer ball.
most probably cost the Dummies a Natty when they ignored you.
will they listen to you THIS YEAR??
no. why?
# ‘CauseDummiesNeverLearn