USC football: Jack Sears at Boise State shouldn’t lead to comparison game

Jack Sears has Boise State. USC football has Kedon Slovis. No what-ifs are necessary.

Jack Sears finally has a landing spot, leaving USC football officially for Boise State.

That’s good for Sears, but it’s not the end of the story for the former Trojan QB and his old team.

Inevitably, a new game unfurls: It’s comparison time.

Whatever Sears does at Boise State, his achievements will be weighed against the accomplishments of the quarterbacks he sat behind at USC.

It’s a game that could ultimately be played again if, or when, JT Daniels decides his transfer situation.

But it shouldn’t be necessary.

It’s all working out for USC football and Jack Sears in the end

The 2019 quarterback competition didn’t play out exactly as expected. Daniels won the job, but little-known three-star QB Kedon Slovis took the backup role ahead of QB3 Matt Fink and QB4 Jack Sears.

It will ultimately work out for all involved.

Sure, at the time all were intrigued by the possibility of Sears putting his intriguing skill set to work for USC’s offense. If he had been given the shot to start over Daniels in 2018 the 5-7 campaign may have turned out very differently.

But the Trojans problems back then weren’t locked onto the performance of the quarterback. After all, the mouthwatering performance Sears put in against ASU still resulted in a Trojan loss.

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By the time the 2019 offseason came around, things had changed significantly. New offensive coordinator Graham Harrell’s Air Raid offense prioritized traits that Sears simply didn’t show. His erratic decision-making and inconsistent passing wouldn’t do.

So he found himself at the bottom of the pecking order and was right to transfer.

At Boise State, he’ll be eligible immediately and ready to compete with sophomore Hank Bachmeier, whose passer rating of 142.71 in eight games of action before an injury was decent even if his touchdown-to-interception ratio of 9-6 was not.

Meanwhile, USC’s coaches have arguably been proven right to list the depth chart as they did.

Daniels got the short end of the stick, essentially losing his starting job to that season-opener ACL tear. But he performed well in the new offense in one half of play. He’ll get another chance to shine somewhere else down the line.

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Either way, Sears wasn’t the best quarterback on USC’s roster in 2019, because Slovis was.

And going forward, Slovis is a better option than either Sears or Daniels. He fits Harrell’s scheme perfectly and now has the better part of a season of experience in it to build off of.

USC football should be happy with where they stand.

Jack Sears should feel optimistic about his prospects.

And neither side should bother to look anywhere but forward.