Clay Helton addresses USC's quarterback depth

USC head football coach Clay Helton in Thursday’s press conference addressed the Trojans’ quarterback room, answering questions about who would back up Kedon Slovis.

Slovis, a junior quarterback, had long been seen as the starter for USC’s season opener with San Jose State on Sept. 4. He returns for his third season with the USC Trojans and started both his sophomore year and part of his freshman year. Last season, Slovis started all six games and was a consensus 2020 All-Pac-12 first team selection, finishing with a completion percentage of 67, 1,921 passing yards, 17 touchdowns and seven interceptions.

As for who will back up USC’s signal caller: true freshman Jaxson Dart.

“I’ve had to have some hard conversations as we’ve moved into gameplanning at several positions,” Helton said. “I’ll be releasing the two-deep next week, but I will give you this because obviously you’ll see. I had the opportunity to talk to our quarterbacks and where we’re going to start at. I commend all three kids for how competitive they were and how much they’ve improved from spring to fall. Going into the San Jose State game, we’ll have Kedon [Slovis] as the number one quarterback, Jaxson [Dart] as the number two and Miller [Moss] as the number three.”

Dart decision widely expected

The decision to place Dart over Moss in the depth chart had been presumed for most of USC’s preseason, but Helton made it official Thursday. With veteran quarterback Mo Hasan, a former Vanderbilt transfer, out for the year after suffering an ACL tear in the spring game, USC will have no collegiate experience behind Slovis in 2021.

Dart, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound freshman from Kaysville, Utah, won the 2020 Gatorade Player of the Year Award last season at Corner Canyon High School after committing to USC. He kept a 69.6 completion percentage as a senior in high school, throwing for a national-best 4,691 yards and a state-record 67 touchdowns.

Both Dart and Moss were ranked four-star recruits by most outlets. 247 Sports had them ranked No. 10 and No. 12, respectively, out of all quarterbacks in the Class of 2021.

“All kids handled it extremely well, like pros, like I knew they would,” Helton continued. “With any other position, I’ll give you this: I had those conversations with our kids yesterday, they kind of know their role going into it, and I’ll release the depth chart later next week based on where we are health-wise and making sure this is the exact lineup we want to go with based on health and based on production.”