USC Football: Is Sam Darnold a sure-fire franchise quarterback?

College Production

One of the biggest concerns teams will have when scouting Sam Darnold is his lack of experience at the college level.

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Sam was able to put up incredibly impressive numbers in his lone season as the Trojan’s quarterback. He completed nearly 70 percent of his passes for over 3,000 yards and over 30 touchdowns, while maintaining a 3-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio, and did so in only 10 games.

However, he did so under unique circumstances.

As previously stated, Darnold was not originally selected to be the Trojan’s starting quarterback, and was instead slated to back up former No. 1 overall prospect Max Browne. When head coach Clay Helton decided to change quarterbacks after the third game of the season he completely changed the dynamics of USC’s offense.

Unlike Browne, Darnold is a dual-threat quarterback who could attack teams with his feet as well as his arm. Teams who had prepared the off-season for a pro style USC offense instead found themselves facing off against a dynamic assault.

While Sam Darnold’s numbers are impressive for a first-year quarterback, it will be incredibly telling how he does after teams have an off-season to prepare for his game.

If Darnold starts every game next season, including a bowl game, he will have start only 23 games over the course of his college career. Of the 21 quarterbacks selected in the top 60 picks since 2012, only three have started 23 or less games in college: Mitch Trubisky (13), Ryan Tannehill (20) and Carson Wentz (23). While having additional game footage would be ideal for the player evaluation process, it doesn’t appear that having a limited number of college starts doesn’t effects a player’s draft evaluation.

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Even though the Trojan’s lost their primary receiving target in JuJu Smith-Schuster, the majority of their starters are returning for Darnold’s redshirt sophomore season. If the Trojans are able to repeat the success they experienced with Sam under center next season, not only will they be in serious contention to make the college football playoffs, but they could also add another No. 1 overall draft pick to their programs already storied history.