USC football: Evaluating each quarterback in the first Fall Camp scrimmage

Jack Sears

Sears didn’t quite replicate the huge day he had during the final Spring Camp scrimmage. Still, he gave a good accounting of himself.

The most intriguing aspect of his day was how his one cameo with the first team was far and away his best moment, leading a red zone drive with complete comfort. It’s just a shame he only got one drive with the top offensive line and receivers available.

Sears is fighting an uphill battle to be considered ahead of JT Daniels, along with all the quarterbacks, but that string of five plays was as much of a tantalizing what-if as his single start against Arizona State in 2018.

• Drive 1 (2nd team)
  • Sears went 2-of-3 after a false start to open the drive from Jacob Daniel. The quarterback found Munir McClain, who bobbled but was able to complete the pass despite coverage from Isaac Taylor-Stuart. Tuasivi Nomura burst through for a sack on second down to set up a tough third-down situation, but Sears went long to Drake London, who drew a pass interference flag on Taylor-Stuart to keep the drive going. Sears then stood in the pocket with pressure from C.J. Pollard on a blitz and launched deep for Velus Jones, who had once again sped past Adonis Otey for a touchdown.
• Drive 2 (Combo 2nd and 3rd team)
  • Sears went 2-of-2 on a drive which ultimately came to nothing. He started by finding Quincy Jountti on a scramble. A handoff to the running back almost resulted in disaster when a defender flew in and forced a fumble. Sears tossed his next pass behind Drake London, but the receiver adjusted well to make the catch. Two handoffs to Ben Easington were stuffed by Juliano Falaniko before Sears took off on a run and the drive ended.
  • Drive 3 (1st team, red zone)
    • Sears went 4-of-4 in his most impressive drive of the day. He completed a pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown, but the next one to Tyler Vaughns resulted in a loss. That set up a third-and-four, which Sears did well to convert despite pressure by going to his outlet in the flat, Markese Stepp. Next the quarterback gained yardage himself on the ground before swinging a pass out to Devon Williams, who used a good block from Stepp to turn the corner and dive into the endzone for the score.
    • Drive 4 (3rd team)
      • Sears went 0-of-1. Gino Quinnones delivered a bad snap on the first play, but Sears recovered and turned the miscue into a gain by running for a chunk of yards. Jason Rodriguez was hit with a false start before Quincy Jountti took a handoff. Sears missed Chris Edmondson on his only pass attempt before finishing with a handoff to Kenan Christon.
      • Drive 5 (3rd team)
        • Sears went 2-of-4 on the final drive of the day. He ran for a gain then hit Matthew Hocum for the first of two short completions. A long attempt appear to fall incomplete then another shot to Jack Webster was flagged for pass interference.