I'm as impressed as anybody with Sears after yesterday's game, and I think his performance makes Helton's comments earlier in the week about "preparing" him (lol...as if) even more laughable. That said, I'm reading a lot of posts here about how JT is/was overrated and is a statue and how you can't succeed without a mobile QB...and I think that's wrong.
As always, this comes down to coaching. JT could and would absolutely be successful and look much better on a team with a semblance of a working offensive gameplan. I bet he could even succeed in a scheme that requires the QB to run, even if he's not breaking 15 yard runs regularly. But a QB of his type who gets no protection from the OL or running game, and who consistently has to run plays that are predictable and have a low success rate...how could he look good in this offense?
Sears is a natural talent, that much is clear from yesterday. And he looks better because he has more improvisational skills and mobility, which given the other factors mentioned above are an absolute necessity in this "system" (in quotes cuz obviously Helton and Tee have no idea what they're doing). Actually, improvising from a broken play is probably even more successful than running the playcalls coming in.
The point is, both of these guys are good and could / should be successful. Think about how badly Helton mucked this up, going back to last year's recruiting class. Nobody was forcing JT to enroll early. Helton basically got his panties twisted because Darnold was leaving and he couldn't successfully recruit any of the top tier QBs in the 2018 class, so he panicked and had JT enroll a full year early so that USC would have sufficient depth at QB this year. Even this was a mistake because it then involved turning away Shea Patterson. Think about an alternate universe where Sears competed with Patterson for the starting job - both are mobile, both are plus talents, both would have made the most of this shit sandwich of an offense. JT would still be in HS. Now about that...
Once JT got to campus, Helton was basically forced to start him. JT could be a senior right now, easily mowing down the teams on MD's schedule again, and waltzing into the #1 overall spot in recruiting rankings everywhere (except for Rivals because we know how they like to do things here). You don't make a kid go through that immense sacrifice - basically giving up the most fun year of his life and enduring a crushing course load - to then sit him. On top of that, JT shows up to practices he doesn't even have to, and he's an immensely popular player who holds a lot of sway with recruits in this class and the future. All credibility would be lost with future recruiting classes. Even if Sears was better, he would basically have had to be Darnold 2.0 to allow for Helton to start him instead.
Tl;dr - both of these guys are good, but Helton messed this up just like everything else involving the football program. In one world, Jack Sears is starting all year or backing up Shea Patterson, who goes pro after this year. Either way, in 2019 Sears is then a RS Soph, who should clearly have a leg up in the QB competition vs. true freshman JT Daniels, making it easier to RS the latter. Instead USC has a QB controversy essentially because Helton couldn't sign Jack Tuttle / Corral / McKee / Martinez / you get the point.
As always, this comes down to coaching. JT could and would absolutely be successful and look much better on a team with a semblance of a working offensive gameplan. I bet he could even succeed in a scheme that requires the QB to run, even if he's not breaking 15 yard runs regularly. But a QB of his type who gets no protection from the OL or running game, and who consistently has to run plays that are predictable and have a low success rate...how could he look good in this offense?
Sears is a natural talent, that much is clear from yesterday. And he looks better because he has more improvisational skills and mobility, which given the other factors mentioned above are an absolute necessity in this "system" (in quotes cuz obviously Helton and Tee have no idea what they're doing). Actually, improvising from a broken play is probably even more successful than running the playcalls coming in.
The point is, both of these guys are good and could / should be successful. Think about how badly Helton mucked this up, going back to last year's recruiting class. Nobody was forcing JT to enroll early. Helton basically got his panties twisted because Darnold was leaving and he couldn't successfully recruit any of the top tier QBs in the 2018 class, so he panicked and had JT enroll a full year early so that USC would have sufficient depth at QB this year. Even this was a mistake because it then involved turning away Shea Patterson. Think about an alternate universe where Sears competed with Patterson for the starting job - both are mobile, both are plus talents, both would have made the most of this shit sandwich of an offense. JT would still be in HS. Now about that...
Once JT got to campus, Helton was basically forced to start him. JT could be a senior right now, easily mowing down the teams on MD's schedule again, and waltzing into the #1 overall spot in recruiting rankings everywhere (except for Rivals because we know how they like to do things here). You don't make a kid go through that immense sacrifice - basically giving up the most fun year of his life and enduring a crushing course load - to then sit him. On top of that, JT shows up to practices he doesn't even have to, and he's an immensely popular player who holds a lot of sway with recruits in this class and the future. All credibility would be lost with future recruiting classes. Even if Sears was better, he would basically have had to be Darnold 2.0 to allow for Helton to start him instead.
Tl;dr - both of these guys are good, but Helton messed this up just like everything else involving the football program. In one world, Jack Sears is starting all year or backing up Shea Patterson, who goes pro after this year. Either way, in 2019 Sears is then a RS Soph, who should clearly have a leg up in the QB competition vs. true freshman JT Daniels, making it easier to RS the latter. Instead USC has a QB controversy essentially because Helton couldn't sign Jack Tuttle / Corral / McKee / Martinez / you get the point.
