Sam Daold making case for Trojans' starting QB job

LOS ANGELES >> The pass from Sam Daold fluttered in the late Wednesday afteoon sunshine.

Daold spotted JuJu Smith-Schuster running untouched along the west sideline of Howard Jones Field and threw the ball downfield about 35 yards.

Smith-Schuster waited, corralled it and barreled through a defensive back for a touchdown.

USC’s first full-pads scrimmage of training camp started smoothly for the redshirt freshman quarterback.

Not only did Daold connect with Smith-Schuster for the touchdown on his 11th pass attempt, but he completed his first eight passes after the team broke for the live 11-on-11 portion of practice. The ninth went down as an incompletion only because he spiked it to avoid a sack.

When the final ho sounded, Daold finished 15-of-21 passing with a touchdown. He also ran for a score.

Daold has continued to build a case to be named the Trojans’ starting quarterback when their season opens next month against Alabama. And at least on this day, there seemed to be evidence that he had the edge over Max Browne.

“Sam is getting a little bit more consistent,” USC head coach Clay Helton said. “I thought in a couple of the early practices he showed a little bit of redshirt freshman.”

But Helton said he could not say that Daold had outperformed his counterpart Wednesday without reviewing film of practice.

“Both kids are improving,” Helton said. “I don’t think they were perfect, just to be honest with you. Being a quarterback coach by trade, I saw some mistakes out there.”

Browne, a redshirt junior, completed 10 of 21 passes with an interception. His pass toward Darreus Rodgers along the sideline was underthrown and snagged by coerback Iman Marshall.

No clear pecking order in the ongoing competition has emerged.

Both Browne and Daold have mixed in with the first-team offense.

“It’s giving us a great opportunity to view both quarterbacks,” Helton said.

Helton praised the Trojans’ depth for allowing the staff to better evaluate the two signal callers. With little drop-off between the first-team offense and second-team offense, Helton said, they can replicate similar settings for both Browne and Daold.

Browne did not throw a touchdown, but he nearly had one scoring toss. His back-shoulder throw to Michael Pittman, a freshman receiver, was dropped in the end zone.

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“Max has been pretty consistent,” Helton said. “I’ve been urging him to take the shots when available.”

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