Pac-12 Football: Top 10 players heading into spring games
By Zach Bigalke
Everyone fell in love with Sam Darnold after his breakout performance against Penn State in the Rose Bowl, as he led the Trojans to a wild comeback victory. But he had already demonstrated why Clay Helton decided to make the switch from Max Browne with an 8-1 record to get USC to Pasadena.
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Entering spring this year, the sophomore is the undisputed linchpin of the Trojan offense as the team looks to return to the top of the Pac-12 standings in 2017.
What Darnold offers to Helton and the USC offense is not only efficiency but also big-play ability. He was a frequent topic of discussion at the 2017 NFL Combine even though he isn’t eligible to go pro until after this season.
Watch for how well he manages to build a relationship with a reconfigured corps of receivers, especially after losing top threat JuJu Smith-Schuster after last year. How well he connects with new receivers will determine Darnold’s (and USC’s) ceiling in 2017.