USC Football: Sam Darnold has monster half against Stanford

USC football met Stanford in a battle for the Pac-12 on Saturday. Through the first half Trojan quarterback Sam Darnold was looking Heisman-ready.

Coming into the season the Sam Darnold for Heisman hype machine was on full blast and rightfully so after helping bring USC back to the forefront after a tough start to the 2016. Darnold helped his Trojans beat the Nittany Lions in the Rose Bowl, but after Week 1 he didn’t look like the same guy everybody was drooling over.

He threw for 289 yards (not bad at all) on 23 of 33 passing with no touchdowns and two interceptions (touchdowns and interceptions are the bad part) against a decent Western Michigan team.

Who expected Darnold to struggle against Western Michigan? Not me, but that brings us to tonight. At the half he has his Trojans up over the Cardinal 28-17 and he is lighting up the Stanford defense. It looks like he is playing a video game right now he is 14-of-17 with three touchdowns and one interception. His first incomplete pass of the game was an interception. If he keeps rolling like this he might put up 400 plus yards and six or seven touchdowns.

Some already bailed on Darnold and his Heisman hopes last weekend, but with his performance against a conference foe, many will have to get right back on that Heisman bandwagon. He is dropping dimes all over the field. Will he finish the game out strong or will he revert back to the Darnold we saw last week against Western Michigan?

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With two more quarters left we will find out if the hype machine needs to be going full blast this week. The people in Southern California have been waiting for another quarterback to follow, can he jump on the wagon of Matt Leinart and Carson Palmer? Only time will tell.