USC Football Roundup: Trojan QB battle among biggest questions (7/31)

Many questions need to be answered by the Trojans this Fall Camp, chief among them concerning the quarterbacks. Here’s the USC football roundup for July 31.

On Tuesday, Sports Illustrated’s Joan Niesen took a look at the questions the college football world has going into August, specifically the ones which will actually be answered in August.

Unsurprisingly, USC football’s quarterback battle kicked things off. Even Texas’ QB competition got a mention.

The Trojans will have to decide between Matt Fink, Jack Sears and JT Daniels before the coming month is over, but that’s not the only question Fall Camp should answer.

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Which freshmen will breakthrough for serious playing time in Year 1? Who will claim starting jobs on the defensive line? Will running back Stephen Carr be good to go by Week 1? Will Austin Jackson or Clayton Johnston prevail in the left tackle battle? Who will replace Jack Jones at cornerback? Who will partner Marvell Tell at safety?

Answers to those questions and more are close enough to almost taste.

As for the questions that, unfortunately, won’t be answered by the end of August? There are many.

Will USC’s offensive line be more consistent in 2018? Has the defense sorted out their big play problems? Does Clay Helton have what it takes to lead USC to the College Football Playoff?

Jack Sears has been here before

Joey Kaufman’s profiles of USC’s quarterbacks for the OC Register continued on Tuesday with a dive into Jack Sears’ background.

The San Clemente quarterback at least has some familiar territory to navigate. He followed in Sam Darnold’s footsteps in high school and he’s hoping for similar results at the college level. His coaches make the pitch for him well.

CHECK OUT: Ranking the 10 best USC quarterbacks ever

Changing the mentality

Another question that needs answering: Did the Trojans really learn from the Cotton Bowl performance and being outmatched by Ohio State in the trenches?

Porter Gustin says they did, as detailed by Shotgun Spratling of USCFootball.com. At Pac-12 Media Day the senior linebacker talked about the team’s push to change the culture on the back of that game.

Trojan fans will only have to hope that culture change is real.

TRENDING: Five Trojans with the most to gain from Fall Camp

What to watch

Keeping the theme of more questions for the Trojans, Zac Al-Khateeb previewed USC in Sporting News with three things to watch: replacing Darnold, playoff chances and the UCLA game.

The task of replacing Darnold is certainly in the spotlight right now, but the playoff question and rivalry concerns are also very real. USC faces a tough schedule filled with out-of-conference challenges and new head coaches on the sidelines in the Pac-12.

MORE: Breaking down USC’s 2018 opponents by threat level 

Reviewing the recruiting landscape

Erik McKinney of WeAreSC.com has a nifty breakdown of USC’s recruiting efforts in 2019 with a look at each position group, how many players the Trojans will target at each spot and players who could fill those scholarships.

Today’s Trojan Trivia

USC held a seven-game winning streak over Ohio State before the 2017 Cotton Bowl ended the run. That matchup was the first time the two teams had met outside of the states of California and Ohio.