Christmas came a couple of days early for Clay Helton and his USC program.
Mater Dei High School junior JT Daniels has been considered one of the top, if not the top, quarterback in the Class of 2019. In an announcement on Twitter that set the recruiting world all aflutter, Daniels revealed that he will be reclassifying -- i.e. skipping his senior year of high school -- and signing with USC as part of its 2018 recruiting class.
✌🏻✌🏻
— JT Daniels (@jtdaniels06) December 22, 2017
🎥: @Baller_Visions pic.twitter.com/VR8KTICeRw
Daniels will graduate early from high school and then enroll at USC-- provided he passes the 16 NCAA-mandated core courses. The president of Daniels’ high school, the Orange County Register wrote, “said it was only Thursday, the final day of the Mater Dei fall semester, that Mater Dei, having collected and examined all of the relevant data, could confirm that Daniels was on track to graduate with the Mater Dei class of 2018.” If all goes as planned, he would then be eligible to play for the Trojans in 2018, and would compete for the starting job immediately if, as some (most?) expect, Sam Darnold leaves early for the NFL.
A consensus five-star recruit, the 6-5, 205-pound Daniels was rated by 247Sports.com‘s as 2019’s No. 1 quarterback and the No. 13 player at any position on its composite board. This week, he was named the Gatorade National Player of the Year.
Daniels committed to USC in June over offers from, among others, Alabama, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame and Stanford.
