Sam Darnold

Early years

Darnold started playing basketball when he was five years old.

He 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 Darnold could have played college basketball in the Pac-12 Conference or the Mountain West Conference "at worst.".

On the football team, he played 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 became the school's permanent 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 44–37 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 was offered a scholarship to the University of Southern California (USC) to play college football.

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 his freshman year as he was behind Cody Kessler and Max Browne on the depth chart.

2016 season

Entering the 2016 season, Darnold was the second-string quarterback behind 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 against the Utah Utes, Darnold completed 18 of 26 passes for 253 yards and recorded a rushing touchdown in the 31–27 loss. 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 offense recorded an average of 37 points and 518 yards per game, while Darnold set the USC 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 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 game 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 (473). 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 is 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.

Statistics

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Personal life

Darnold's mother is a physical education teacher at Shorecliffs Middle School, while his father Mike and grandfather played college football. His sister, Franki, was a college volleyball player at the University of Rhode Island. His other grandfather, Dick Hammer, is a former Marlboro Man actor and USC athlete.