USC quarterback JT Daniels out for the season with torn ACL and meniscus

USC survived and got a win Saturday night, but they’ve lost quarterback JT Daniels for the season with a serious knee injury.

Hot seat talks surrounding USC head coach Clay Helton can be curbed for a week, as the Trojans  escaped with a 31-23 win over Fresno State on Saturday night. But after going down late in the first half with what seemed to a serious knee injury, sophomore quarterback JT Daniels wasn’t as lucky.

According to Adam Maya of Sports Illustrated’s Trojan Maven, an MRI on Sunday showed Daniels suffered a torn ACL and meniscus in his right knee. He will miss the rest of the season. Initial x-rays came back negative, fostering hope Daniels only suffered a severe knee sprain and would only have to miss several weeks at the most, but it was not to be.

After Kliff Kingsbury bailed quickly to become head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, Helton landed on Graham Harrell as offensive coordinator to install the Air Raid offense this year. Daniels looked pretty good, going 25-for-34 for 215 yards with a touchdown and an interception until he went down.

True freshman Kedon Slovis replaced Daniels against Fresno, and he finished 6-for-8 for 57 yards with an interception. With Jack Sears deciding to enter the NCAA transfer portal last week after he fell to No. 4 on the depth chart coming out of fall camp, redshirt junior Matt Fink is only other scholarship quarterback on USC’s roster now. The door seemed to be open for Sears to return to the roster if it came to that, but it’s unclear if he’ll change course now that Daniels is done for the season.

A significant quarterback question, as much as there is ever a good time for such a thing, is coming at a particularly bad time for USC. Their next five games go Stanford at home, at BYU, Utah at home, at Washington and at Notre Dame.

Whether it’s Slovis, Fink or even possibly Sears, Helton’s job security will now depend on down the depth chart signal callers over the rest of the season.