JT Daniels has committed to play at West Virginia in 2022
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00:00Former Georgia and USC quarterback JT Daniels announced his commitment to West Virginia
00:08on Wednesday after entering the transfer portal following Georgia's national championship
00:13win.
00:14Daniels, of course, spent the 2020 and 2021 seasons with the Georgia Bulldogs in the 2019
00:20season with the USC Trojans.
00:21Everyone, I'm Claudette Montana-Pattison with FAN Nation Now.
00:24Joining me is Skylar Callahan, he's the publisher for Mountaineer Maven here on FAN Nation.
00:30Skylar, what do you think went into Daniels' decision to commit to West Virginia?
00:34Well, he was looking for the right spot and a place that he could go and compete for a
00:38starting job right away.
00:39And I think he landed right in the perfect situation in Morgantown.
00:43You look at the quarterback room at West Virginia right now, it's Garrett Green, Nico Marquial,
00:47and Goose Crowder.
00:48All three guys have not started a game.
00:50So the only one that has game experience is Garrett Green.
00:54Will Crowder got some action here and there, but it was really in the blowout whenever
00:57Long Island.
00:58This is really his job to lose.
01:00I think if he stays healthy, going into the fall camp, it's going to be his job.
01:05And apparently his dad had spoken with one of the analytics guys at WVU, and I don't
01:11know if I believe this, but apparently he makes the addition of JT Daniels makes West
01:15Virginia going from a 6-win team to a potential 10-win team.
01:20I don't know if I buy it, but it's definitely a boost for sure.
01:23Well, he's a very talented quarterback.
01:26His main obstacle, of course, has been his ability to stay healthy.
01:30Another factor in all of this, though, of course, is that he's going to reunite with
01:33his former offensive coordinator, Graham Harrell, who was his offensive coordinator at USC.
01:39How valuable is it that those two already have that built-in connection?
01:43Well, it's huge.
01:44It's huge for one of many reasons.
01:47But first of all, for Graham Harrell, I mean, he just brings an identity to this offense.
01:52That's something that Neil Brown has lacked on the offensive side of the ball since he
01:55got the job back in 2019.
01:56And when you have a guy like Graham Harrell, you know what you're going to do.
01:59You're going to spread people out.
02:00You're going to throw the ball around a lot.
02:02And you need a quarterback to do that.
02:04And now they've got one of the best in the country that was available to come in and
02:07be that guy.
02:08So I think you get the combination of Harrell and Daniels together.
02:12Again, like you said, they've got some of that past together, and I think they're going
02:17to be able to bring that here to West Virginia and maybe finally get this thing going.
02:22Because again, heading into year four with Neil Brown, and there's not been much progress
02:25being made.
02:26So we know that JT Daniels is a talented quarterback when he's healthy.
02:30What about the weapons around him?
02:32Do you think he has good enough weapons for this offense to be successful?
02:37That's a great question.
02:38They lost three of their top five receivers to the transfer portal, but some of those
02:43guys I don't really think were much of a fit anyway or didn't have much of a future with
02:47the program.
02:48So they do have two very experienced receivers, Sam James and Bryce Ford Wheaton, who they
02:53expect to make another big leap this year.
02:56And they got a young star in the making in Caden Prather, a true sophomore that's got
03:00a world of potential.
03:02And in the running back room, they got Clemson transfer Lynn J. Dixon, Tony Mathis.
03:06So they got bodies there, and it all starts up front.
03:09They've got all five starting guys on that offensive line returning.
03:12So there's definitely pieces around them.
03:14They just needed that quarterback to make the whole offense complete, and I think they
03:17got that.
03:18All right.
03:19Well, West Virginia opens up their 2022 season against Pittsburgh on September 1st, which
03:25will be a very interesting matchup because another former USC quarterback, Keaton Slovis,
03:29will be on the opposing sideline.
03:32And of course, Slovis and Daniels were teammates back in the day at USC.
03:36Skyler, thanks so much for breaking it all down for us.
03:38We appreciate it and looking forward to seeing how JT Daniels does at West Virginia.