LOS ANGELES — Not much flusters Sam Darnold.
The USC quarterback led one of the greatest comebacks in Rose Bowl history, unflinching in the face of a 14-point, fourth-quarter deficit to Penn State. It was the same poise he showed as a high school sophomore in his first start at San Clemente High, when he engineered a comeback over rival Tesoro.
When he talks to you, he looks you in the eye. He is confident without being cocky.
But bring up the fact that there are Jets fans hoping their team goes 0-16 this year to land the No. 1 pick in next spring’s draft in order to draft him, and Darnold starts to fidget in his chair, look at the floor and search for words.
“It’s crazy to hear,” Darnold said recently in a sitdown interview with The Post on the USC campus. “The whole tank or whatever thing, that’s something I don’t really want to talk about and something that’s not on my mind at all. It’s definitely a little obtuse, the whole idea of it.”
Most of Darnold’s friends know he does not want to hear about “Suck for Sam,” or where people project him going in the NFL. But when something is too funny or too bizarre, they show him. Like the guy in the Jets No. 14 jersey at Yankee Stadium this summer with “Darnold” written across the back, whose picture went viral.
“I just kind of laughed,” Darnold said. “It’s special, honestly. I never really thought anyone would do it. I’m honestly at a loss for words to explain what I was feeling when I saw that picture.”
It’s not just Jets fans dreaming of Darnold. There are fans in San Francisco, Jacksonville, Buffalo and every other NFL outpost starved for a franchise quarterback hoping the quarterback his high school teammates nicknamed “Our Lord and Savior” lands in their uniform.
“Sam is really, really special,” said former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer, who has worked with Darnold at the Elite 11 quarterback camp. “The comment I made on Andrew Luck when he came out was I had never seen a kid, that if you took 30 different layers of quarterbacking, that you’re like 7.5 or an 8 on all of them. Usually a guy is like a 9 here, then a 6 here, then a 5 here then an 8 here. Andrew was like a 7.5 or 8 in everything.
“Sam is the same way. He’s got some 9s. He’s got some 10s. He’s got some 8s. But he doesn’t have any 6s. I don’t know if he has any 7.5s. He’s better than most at every single thing.”
It has been a wild ride for the 20-year-old Darnold since the 52-49 Rose Bowl win on Jan. 2. Since then, he has become a Sports Illustrated cover boy, Heisman Trophy favorite and the top prospect in the 2018 draft, even though he has not yet declared for it.
“I’m definitely just focused on the now,” Darnold said of the NFL. “When that time comes, I’ll focus on that.”
‘Your life’s about to change’
Darnold began last season on the bench. As a redshirt freshman, he lost a preseason competition to be the starter to junior Max Browne. But after a 1-2 start, USC coach Clay Helton replaced Browne with Darnold. The Trojans lost Darnold’s first start, to Utah, by four points and then won nine straight games, capped off by the Rose Bowl.
Darnold performed well all season, completing 67.2 percent of his passes and throwing 31 touchdowns against just nine interceptions, but it was that Rose Bowl performance, when he threw for 453 yards and five touchdowns, that made him the face of college football.
Shortly after his game-tying, 27-yard touchdown pass to Deontay Burnett with 1:20 left in the game, his high school coach, Jaime Ortiz, texted him: “Your life’s about to change.”
“It’s been kind of crazy after that Rose Bowl game,” Darnold said. “There are a lot of people who care about the Pac-12, but it doesn’t necessarily get out to the East Coast as much because the games are super late. I think with the Rose Bowl being the only game on TV that night and it being a big bowl game, the spotlight was on. The way the game flowed and the back-and-forth play, people were excited to see what was going to happen. I happened to perform well at the end, and that’s what people saw.”
He drove home to Capistrano Beach after the game and gave his uniform to his mom, Chris, and said, “I need you never, ever to wash this.”
The Darnold legend had been born.
Since then, every aspect of his life has been written about, dissected and analyzed. Everything, from the house he grew up in to his boogie board exploits as a 5-year-old, has been chronicled.
For Darnold, he realized Ortiz was correct when he was home the week after the Rose Bowl. He got mobbed in a Buffalo Wild Wings. Everyone with an iPhone wanted a selfie. Fame had found him.
“I’ve got to be on my toes at all times,” Darnold said. “I can’t be doing anything that would put me in a bad light, not that I would do that anyways. I definitely think that with the way the parents raised me I’m never going to do anything to tarnish anything I’ve done. You just always have to be aware of it. There are people who might act like your friend one minute and then will leak a video of you doing something you shouldn’t be doing.”
It seems like a crazy standard for a 20-year-old college student to live up to. How do you live under the microscope?
“I think if there’s anybody who is capable of handling it, it’s him, honestly,” said Marc Popovich, Darnold’s high school basketball coach.
Popovich, who has known Darnold since he was in grade school, said the fame won’t change Darnold.
“I don’t know if you saw the ’30 for 30’ on the Bush/Leinart USC teams, and those guys are out at clubs in L.A. That’s not Sam,” Popovich said. “I don’t think he’s getting the best table or anything. He’s probably hanging out at home with his roommates and his girlfriend watching ‘Ace Ventura’ for the 80th time.”
Darnold said he is enjoying the media attention he has gotten this summer. He has even launched his own podcast through USC’s sports information department.
“If you don’t embrace, it’s going to seem kind of miserable,” Darnold said. “I’ve loved it so far.”
‘Local legend’
You can find Lasuens Beach tucked between two houses on Calle de los Alamos, down a steep flight of stairs and across a set of train tracks. It was there that Darnold played beach football, developing some of the improvisational skills that are now a trademark of his game.
He comes from an athletic family. His grandfather Dick Hammer was a two-sport athlete, an Olympian and once played the Marlboro Man. His mother is a physical education teacher and played college volleyball, as did his sister, Franki. His father, Mike, a medical plumber, played college football, too.
Coaches took notice of Darnold at a young age.
“He was kind of like a local legend as a young kid,” said Ortiz, who would be his football coach at San Clemente. “You knew at 5, 6 years old that he was different.”
Darnold never specialized in one sport. He played football, basketball and baseball growing up, dropping baseball after his freshman year of high school.
On the basketball court, he was a ferocious rebounder and a skilled 3-point shooter. The vision Darnold now shows when he throws down the field, Popovich saw when the high-schooler would turn and throw a Wes Unseld-style outlet pass for the Tritons.
About the only mistake Darnold ever made came after San Clemente’s basketball team blew an eight-point lead his junior year. He punched a locker, broke his finger and missed the rest of the season. It was a lesson learned in how to maintain your poise.
On the football field, Darnold played wide receiver and linebacker as a sophomore. In the ninth game of the season, the starting quarterback was injured, and Darnold stepped in. Tesoro was up by two touchdowns, but Darnold led the Tritons to an overtime win.
“That’s when you knew this kid has that ‘it factor’ everyone talks about,” Ortiz said.
A foot injury his junior year hurt him in recruiting. Without much film, colleges were cautious. But USC saw Darnold at a showcase at San Clemente the spring before his senior year and then offered him a scholarship that summer at their camp.
Darnold had grown up watching Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush. He said yes on the spot.
“I always wanted to be a USC football player ever since I can remember,” Darnold said.
Staying or going?
The question that will hover over Darnold in his redshirt sophomore season is: How long will he stay at USC? Most people already have him in the draft next year. But he has started just 10 games in college.
While scouts are drooling, there are questions to be answered.
“I know everybody is in love with Sam Darnold and I am, too,” said Nick Aliotti, the longtime Oregon defensive coordinator who is now a Pac-12 Network analyst. “But I have to see another year, to be honest with you. I have to see him dropping back in the pocket and reading coverages. It’s not because I didn’t love the guy last year and he didn’t show me he’s a good player. I’ll be honest. I haven’t seen enough. I’m certainly not knocking him, but I have to see more.”
Others seem convinced Darnold is ready.
“I think he is the real deal,” said Gil Brandt, the longtime Cowboys executive who is now a host on SiriusXM. “I think he’s everything you’re looking for. He’s pretty darn good.”
The 6-foot-4, 225-pounder does not have the biggest arm, but he has an innate ability to see the field. His anticipation is remarkable, and his ability to make something out of nothing stands out.“Kyle Shanahan and I were talking about it the other day and we used the same word,” Dilfer said of the 49ers coach. “He’s always on balance, even when his body is contorted. He can do these crazy things where most people say he’s out of position and yet, he has a way of finding his balance. Kyle and I both agreed it’s probably the most important element of being accurate.”
Dilfer said Luck and Aaron Rodgers are the only other quarterbacks he has seen with that quality.
“Pretty good company to be in,” Dilfer said. “Sam can walk through a tornado and not lose his balance.”
Popovich thinks Darnold has never really thought about the NFL until now.
“That’s such a far-off thing for him.,” Popovich said. “I think if you had asked him five years ago … to be able to play at USC and to play in the Rose Bowl was almost as big as he could dream in a way. He loves being at USC.”
Save him a slice
All eyes will be on Darnold this season as the No. 4 Trojans chase a national championship, and he chases the Heisman.
Nowhere will that be more the case than in New York, with Jets fans.
Despite the love affair Jets fans already have with him and the “Suck for Sam” campaign that will be a theme of the 2017 Jets season, Darnold has never even been to New York.
“How good is New York pizza?” he innocently asks.
When told it lives up to the hype, “Hopefully, one day I can go to New York and try some.”
That day may be coming soon, and there are plenty of Jets fans willing to buy him a pie or two.