Samuel Richard Darnold (born June 5, 1997) is an American football quarterback for the New York Jets of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at USC. He was drafted third overall by the Jets in the 2018 NFL Draft.
Darnold was a two-sport athlete at San Clemente High School, playing football and basketball. Considered a four-star recruit by Rivals.com, he was recruited to USC and joined the football team. After redshirting his freshman year, he served as the second-string quarterback in 2016 before being named the starter after three games. As a redshirt freshman starter, he set multiple USC freshman records, led the Trojans to eight consecutive wins, and won the 2017 Rose Bowl. Darnold announced he would forego his final two years of eligibility and declare for the 2018 NFL Draft at the conclusion of his redshirt sophomore season.
Video Sam Darnold
Early years
Darnold was born in Capistrano Beach, California on June 5, 1997. He started playing basketball when he was five years old.
Darnold attended San Clemente High School in San Clemente, California. After playing baseball in his freshman year, he played football and basketball. During his high school basketball career, Darnold excelled, and was named South Coast League Most Valuable Player twice, along with being named to the all-CIF team. Basketball coach Marc Popovich stated Darnold's basketball skills helped translate into football, being the "only guy [I've] ever had who could get a defensive rebound and launch a 70-foot pass on target, pretty much in the same motion, to a guy breaking out in the fastbreak. It was almost Wes Unseld-like." Popovich added that Darnold could have played college basketball in the Pac-12 Conference or the Mountain West Conference "at worst."
On the football team, Darnold played wide receiver and linebacker, though he played quarterback as a sophomore after the starting quarterback was injured in a game against Tesoro High School. He threw a touchdown pass and scored the game-winning two-point conversion, but returned to playing receiver and linebacker a week later. When he legitimately became the school's quarterback, Darnold broke the school record for the most touchdown passes in a game when he threw five on two occasions. He missed much of his junior year with a foot injury. In his senior year, San Clemente reached the CIF-Southern Section Southwest Division championship game, where they lost 37-44 to Trabuco Hills High School. He ended his senior season with 3,000 passing yards and 39 touchdowns, along with 800 rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns.
Darnold was rated by Rivals.com as a four-star recruit and was ranked as the eighth best dual-threat quarterback in his class and 179th best player overall. However, he did not have much footage of him performing at recruiting camps, preferring to show his play in games. As a result, San Clemente head football coach Jaime Ortiz elected to provide video of his basketball career to football coaches. He received scholarship offers to play college football from schools like Oregon, Utah, Northwestern and Duke. During a football camp, USC coaches Clay Helton and Steve Sarkisian were impressed by Darnold's performance, and extended to him a scholarship to play for the Trojans.
Maps Sam Darnold
College career
2015 season
USC defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox, who recruited Darnold to the school, wanted him to play linebacker before he declined. In the 2015 season, Darnold redshirted for his freshman year as he was behind Cody Kessler and Max Browne on the depth chart.
2016 season
Entering the 2016 season as a redshirt freshman, Darnold was the second-string quarterback behind Max Browne. In three games as backup quarterback, Darnold saw limited action, completing 14-of-22 passes for two touchdowns and an interception. After a 1-2 start to the season, Browne was benched in favor of Darnold. In his first career start with USC against the Utah Utes, Darnold completed 18-of-26 passes for 253 yards and recorded a rushing touchdown as USC lost 27-31. After the loss, Darnold's Trojans did not lose a game for the remainder of the season, including a 26-13 upset win over the #4-ranked Washington Huskies. The USC offense recorded an average of 37 points and 518 yards per game, while Darnold set the school record for most passing touchdowns by a freshman with 26, ten more than the previous record set by Todd Marinovich in 1989. Against Arizona and California, Darnold became the first quarterback in school history to record five touchdown passes in consecutive games, while also throwing for multiple touchdowns in eight straight games, the first USC quarterback to do so since Matt Leinart did in 2004. On the ground, Darnold recorded 230 rushing yards, the most by a USC quarterback since Reggie Perry's 254 yards in 1991. Darnold was named the 2016 Pac-12 Conference Freshman Offensive Player of the Year in late November.
USC was invited to play in the 2017 Rose Bowl, their first appearance in the bowl in eight seasons. In the 52-49 victory over Penn State, Darnold completed 33-of-53 passes for 453 yards, while also setting Rose Bowl records in passing touchdowns (5) and total yards (453). The 453 yards recorded ranked second in the bowl's history, only trailing Danny O'Neil's 456 in the 1995 game.
On January 4, 2017, it was announced that Darnold was awarded the Archie Griffin Award, which was awarded annually to college football's most valuable player to his team throughout the season, an award no other freshman had ever won previously. Darnold was also named to the Football Writers Association of America's Freshman All-America team.
2017 season
Entering the 2017 season as a redshirt sophomore, Darnold became an early favorite for the Heisman Trophy, and eventually a first overall pick in the 2018 Draft. The season did not start the way Darnold had expected. In 6 games, he had matched the number of interceptions that he had thrown the previous year. This was accredited to breaking in a new receiver group, numerous injuries, and questionable coaching decisions. Despite this, he led USC to a dominant victory over Stanford, and led a comeback over the Texas Longhorns during the season, as well as leading USC to a Pac-12 Conference championship with a victory over Stanford in the conference championship game where he was awarded the game's MVP. The win earned USC a spot in the 2017 Cotton Bowl. On January 3, 2018, Darnold officially announced that he would enter the 2018 NFL Draft.
Statistics
Source:
Professional career
Darnold was selected by the New York Jets in the first round, with the third overall selection, of the 2018 NFL Draft.
Personal life
Darnold's mother is a physical education teacher at Shorecliffs Middle School. His older sister, Franki, is a college volleyball player at the University of Rhode Island. His grandfather, Dick Hammer, is a former Marlboro Man actor and USC athlete.
References
External links
- USC Trojans bio
Source of article : Wikipedia
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