Sam Darnold

The USC offense recorded an average of 37 points and 518 yards per game, while Darnold set the school record for most passing touchdowns by a freshman with 26, ten more than the previous record set by Todd Marinovich in 1989.

On the ground, Darnold recorded 230 rushing yards, the most by a USC quarterback since Reggie Perry's 254 yards in 1991.

The 453 passing yards recorded ranked second in the bowl's history, only trailing Danny O'Neil's 456 in the 1995 game.

Samuel Richard Darnold (born June 5, 1997) is an American football quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL).

Darnold was born in Dana Point, California on June 5, 1997.

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

On the football team, Darnold played wide 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 legitimately became the school's 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 37–44 to Trabuco Hills High School in a comeback upset after Sam was knocked out of the game with a concussion.

He ended his senior season with 3,000 passing yards and 39 touchdowns, along with 800 rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns.

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 did in 2004.

In the 2015 season, Darnold redshirted for his freshman year as he was behind Cody Kessler and Max Browne on the depth chart.

Entering the 2016 season as a redshirt freshman, Darnold was the second-string quarterback behind Max 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 with USC against the Utah Utes, Darnold completed 18-of-26 passes for 253 yards and recorded a rushing touchdown as USC lost 27–31.

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.

Darnold was named the 2016 Pac-12 Freshman Offensive Player of the Year in late November.

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 received scholarship offers to play college football from schools like Oregon, Utah, Northwestern and Duke.

During a football camp, USC coaches Clay Helton and Steve Sarkisian were impressed by Darnold's performance, and extended to him a scholarship to play for the Trojans.

USC defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox, who recruited Darnold to the school, wanted him to play linebacker before he declined.

USC was invited to play in the 2017 Rose Bowl, their first appearance in the bowl 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).

On January 4, 2017, it was announced that Darnold was awarded the Archie Griffin Award, which was 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.

Entering the 2017 season as a redshirt sophomore, Darnold became an early favorite for the Heisman Trophy, and eventually a first-round pick in the 2018 draft.

The season did not start the way Darnold had expected.

He played college football at the University of Southern California (USC), and was selected third overall by the New York Jets in the 2018 NFL Draft.

At age 21, he was the NFL's youngest opening-day starting quarterback since the AFL–NFL merger.

Darnold served as the Jets' starter from 2018 to 2020, but due to inconsistent play and injuries, he was traded to the Carolina Panthers in 2021.

Following two seasons with the Panthers, he joined the 49ers as a backup.