The countdown to USC’s 2025 football season is officially on! The Trojans kick off their new campaign 14 days from today. You need something to help you while away the days and hours in the spring and summer. This is one way to do so. In this new series, countdown to kickoff, we will be counting down the days by highlighting a notable Trojan who wore each number. Today, we look at former USC quarterback Sam Darnold.
Position: Quarterback
Years played at USC: 2015-2017
Career highlights: After redshirting his first year on campus in 2015, Darnold spent the first three games of the 2016 season as the backup to Max Browne. With the Trojans off to a 1-2 start, however, head coach Clay Helton elected to make a change and inserted Darnold into the starting lineup. USC lost Darnold’s first start at Utah, but did not lose again for the rest of the season after that. The Trojans ended their 2016 campaign on a nine-game winning streak, culminating in an instant classic 52-49 Rose Bowl victory over Penn State, in which Darnold threw for 453 yards and five touchdowns.
The following season, Darnold led USC to its first conference title in nine years, as the Trojans defeated Stanford in the Pac-12 Championship Game. That year, he also earned first-time all-Pac-12 honors and became the first USC quarterback to throw for over 4,000 yards in a season. However, the Trojans ended the year in disappointing fashion with a 24-7 blowout loss to Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl.
After USC: Following his redshirt sophomore season, Darnold declared for the 2018 NFL Draft, where the New York Jets selected him with the third overall pick. However, he struggled his first few years in the league (as most Jets quarterbacks tend to do), and appeared on track towards being a career backup at best.
Last season with the Minnesota Vikings, however—Darnold’s fourth different team in seven years in the league—he finally had a breakthrough season. He finished the year with a career-high 4,319 passing yards and 35 passing touchdowns. After signing with the Seattle Seahawks this past offseason, Darnold will look to replicate last year’s success in the Pacific Northwest this fall.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC football countdown to kickoff—Sam Darnold in focus
Reporting by Adam Bradford, Trojans Wire / Trojans Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Adam Bradford, Trojans Wire | USA TODAY Network
