The Missouri football team has already wrapped up spring football practices, but the biggest question surrounding the team remains unanswered: Who will start next season at quarterback?
The Tigers currently have two scholarship quarterbacks on the roster in Brady Cook and Tyler Macon. Both showed some promise, and some room for improvement, during the team’s spring game on March 19. Cook completed 16 of 20 passes for 191 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. Macon went 16-23 for 233 yards, one score and two picks.
While head coach Eli Drinkwitz has complimented Cook and Macon, he also hasn’t been shy about saying that he wants to introduce more competition into the room.
“I can’t wait to continue to watch this battle unfold,” Drinkwitz said on March 15. “Can’t wait to continue to add other guys to it. Looking forward to Sam (Horn) getting in here this summer, and as the late Colin Powell said, the only thing better than a little competition is a lot of competition, and we’re going to continue to add competition to this quarterback battle, and we need it. We need it in order to win in this league.”
As Drinkwitz alluded to, incoming freshman Sam Horn will hit campus in June, and he’ll get a crack at the starting job. Plus, Missouri has been active in pursuing a transfer quarterback. The Tigers hosted former Arizona State quarterback Jayden Daniels before he committed to LSU, then Georgia transfer JT Daniels visited campus for the spring game. Daniels has previously visited Oregon State, and ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Thursday that he will also take a trip to West Virginia before finalizing his decision.
Clearly, the Missouri staff is interested in Daniels, which suggests Drinkwitz and company view him as an upgrade over the quarterbacks currently on the roster. Daniels has two seasons of eligibility remaining, but the expectation is that he will look to use the 2022 season to audition for the NFL and then go pro.
However, it’s fair to wonder what, exactly, the Tigers would be getting in the oft-injured signal-caller. On one hand, Daniels was a five-star prospect in the class of 2018 for a reason — he has plenty of talent in his right arm. But on the other, Daniels has been beaten out as the starter at each of his first two college stops, most recently by a player who started his career as a walk-on in Stetson Bennett. So, we decided to take a deep dive into Daniels’ background and his numbers.
It’s little surprise that Daniels was ranked as the No. 2 quarterback in the 2018 class given the ridiculous numbers he put up at Mater Dei, a football powerhouse in Southern California. Across three seasons as the starter, Daniels threw for 12,014 yards, 152 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. In 2017, he was named the Gatorade national football player of the year. Daniels committed to USC and ended up enrolling a year early, reclassifying from the 2019 class to 2018.
Daniels quickly won the starting job, becoming the second true freshman ever to start at quarterback for USC. But he struggled a bit to adjust to the college game. In 11 games, Daniels completed 59.5 percent of his passes and threw for 2,672 yards. He tossed 14 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. USC finished the season 5-7.
Daniels retained the starting job entering his sophomore season, but in USC’s season opener, he tore the ACL and meniscus in his right knee. In his absence, Kedon Slovis completed 71.9 percent of his passes and threw 30 touchdowns.
That made Slovis the favorite to start in 2020 and prompted Daniels to transfer. He landed at Georgia, but the recovery from his knee injury took longer than expected. It wasn’t until the sixth game of the season that he took over the starting job from Bennett and made his Georgia debut.
Daniels put up solid numbers last season. In four games, he completed 80 of 119 passes (67.2 percent). He threw for 1,231 yards, 10 touchdowns and two interceptions. Georgia won all four of his starts, including a Peach Bowl victory over Cincinnati.
Thus, Daniels figured to be Georgia’s starter behind center this season, and he indeed started the Bulldogs’ season-opening matchup against Clemson. But he didn’t play well, apparently in part due to injuries to his lat and oblique that he suffered during fall camp. Daniels completed 22 of 30 passes but for just 135 yards. He didn’t throw a touchdown, and the Georgia offense didn’t score a touchdown. Daniels then sat out the following week’s game against UAB and Bennett played well, completing 10 of 12 passes for 288 yards and five touchdowns. It’s unclear when, exactly, Daniels became healthy enough to play, but head coach Kirby Smart stuck with Bennett behind center. Obviously, that strategy worked, as the Bulldogs knocked off Alabama to win the national title in January.
Daniels wound up appearing in four more games after the season-opener. On the season, he completed 72.3 percent of his passes and threw seven touchdowns versus three interceptions.
Put together, Daniels’ numbers from his time at Georgia look pretty good. In nine games across two seasons, he completed 69.5 percent of his passes. He averaged 9.2 yards per attempt. And he threw 17 touchdowns versus five interceptions. For reference, in each of the past two seasons, only eight quarterbacks nationally have matched or exceeded that completion percentage. Thirteen passers averaged more than 9.2 yards per attempt in 2020, while only six did so a season ago. His relatively low touchdown total can be explained, in part, by the fact that three of his five appearances last season came when games had already been decided and Georgia didn’t need to throw down the field, although playing in those situations probably helped his efficiency, too.
Pro Football Focus graded Daniels as the No. 16 passer nationally in 2020 among quarterbacks with at least 100 dropbacks. He didn’t hit that threshold in 2021 but would have been 33rd had he dropped back to pass two more times.
The most glaring concern when it comes to Daniels is his injury history. Daniels has been unavailable for at least one game in each of his four college seasons due to injury. He’s also not a threat with his legs. Daniels has rushed for negative yardage (due to sacks) in each of his four seasons and has never scored a touchdown on the ground. While neither Macon nor Cook has much game experience at the college level, making it difficult to compare them to Daniels as passers, both have shown the ability to make plays with their mobility.
Daniels is expected to finalize his decision before June. He will graduate from Georgia in May, thus allowing him to transfer a second time without sitting out next season.
Talk about this story and more in The Tigers' Lair
Make sure you're caught up on all the Tiger news and headlines
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for video and live streaming coverage
