MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – What was presumed became reality Monday when West Virginia head football coach Neal Brown announced that junior J.T. Daniels would be the Mountaineers’ starting quarterback.

A native of Irvine, California, the 6-foot-2, 226-pound Daniels played in 22 games and started 17 of those in his first four seasons of collegiate football, which he spit between USC and Georgia.

He arrived at WVU in May, having transferred from Georgia, and now Daniels will get the opportunity to lead the Mountaineers into the 2022 season opener on Thursday at Pitt (7 p.m. on ESPN).

From the moment he announced his transfer to West Virginia, Daniels was expected to be WVU’s starting QB, but Brown held off making that announcement until Monday’s weekly press conference, just four days before the Backyard Brawl.

“J.T. earned the right to start; he’ll be our starting quarterback,” explained Brown. “Decision-making is kind of what won the job for him. We have full trust in him, and we have confidence in how he’ll perform in the opener.

“The quarterback competition went on for the first two weeks of camp,” continued WVU’s fourth-year head coach. “It came down to scoring drives, completion percentage, decision-making and those things. All four of the guys (Daniels, Garrett Greene, Goose Crowder and Nicco Marchiol) had equal opportunities, but after two weeks and two scrimmages, it was clear that J.T. earned the right.

“The battle for the backup is ongoing. I’ve said this before, but I feel good about the future at that position, and I feel positive about the young guys we have there. We’re doing some things to really key in on their development.”

In his time at USC and Georgia, Daniels completed 389 of 610 passes (63.8%) for 4,840 yards with 32 touchdowns and 16 interceptions.

Injuries hampered his opportunity to hold on to the starting position at each school, though. After starting all 11 games for the Trojans in 2018 as a true freshman, he entered the 2019 campaign as the starter again, but he injured his knee in USC’s opening game and missed the rest of the season. He transferred to Georgia the following spring and continued to rehab his injured knee in the first half of the 2020 season before returning to health and earning the starting job in the final four games that year, in which he guided the Bulldogs to a 4-0 record.

Daniels opened the 2021 season as UGA’s starting QB as well. He led the Dawgs to wins over Clemson, South Carolina and Vanderbilt in the early portion of that campaign, completing 54 of 71 passes for 567 yards with five TDs and two interceptions in those three victories. But then a strained oblique muscle sidelined him. By the time he returned to full health a month later, Georgia was ranked No. 1 in the country, and their coaches didn’t want to risk altering the momentum with a change behind center. So, Stetson Bennett remained the starter at quarterback, and that decision ultimately paid off for the Bulldogs, as Bennett led them to the national championship.

With Bennett returning in 2022, though, Daniels went looking for a new school where he could start, and eventually picked West Virginia. Now he heads into the season as WVU’s starter.

“There are a lot of unknowns going into an opener, probably on both sides,” noted Brown, who will be facing Pitt for the first time in his head-coaching career, as the Backyard Brawl has been dormant for 11 years. “For J.T., it is going to be his first game here. The positive is that it’s going to be his 17th or 18th start at the Power 5 level, so this isn’t going to be new for him. He’s played in big games, so I don’t think the atmosphere is going to rattle him.

“He’s really accurate with the football,” continued Brown in his assessment of Daniels, who he says throws a “very catchable” deep ball. “He’s thrown the ball down field at a high completion percentage during camp. He does a really good job in terms of a run-pass decision. He does a lot of good things.”

* * * * * *

The announcement of West Virginia’s starting quarterback received most of the attention Monday, but the rest of WVU’s depth chart was published as well.

Besides the backup QB spot, the Mountaineers also listed six other positions with “ors,” meaning that a starter is not set for those yet.

At tight end, it is Brian Polendy or Mike O’Laughlin, Brandon Yates or Ja’Quay Hubbard at right tackle, Jared Bartlett or Lanell Carr at bandit, Davis Mallinger or Jasir Cox at spear, Rashad Ajayi or Wesley McCormick at left cornerback and Kolton McGhee or Oliver Straw at punter.

“Outside of quarterback and maybe the specialists, which are the only positions where only one guy usually plays, it’s not so much about who starts but who finishes,” stated Brown. “We’re going to play a large number of bodies in the opener.

“I expect to play seven up front (in the offensive line). I think we’ll play in the five to six range at receiver. There are three running backs who are going to play; three tight ends who are going to play. Along the defensive line, we expect to play eight to 10. At linebacker, we’re going to play four; spear we’re going to play two. There are three or four corners who will play, and three to four safeties. We’re going to play a good number of people.”

Not every starting job for the Mountaineers heading into Thursday’s Backyard Brawl has been revealed, but the first-team quarterback job is now official.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WV News) — Call this "the best three quarterbacks in the Big 12 for 2022 not named JT Daniels."

Daniels, of course, is the USC/Georgia transfer who was a 5-star recruit out of high school who has chosen to finish his career at West Virginia, and even though coach Neal Brown hasn't officially named him the starter, it's fully anticipated that he will.

And when he does, it's hard to imagine anyone not believing he belongs in the league's top three, but we thoroughly went through Brown's thoughts on him in the first installment, so we will now go over the Top 3 others.

No. 1: Spencer Sanders, Oklahoma State

Spencer Sanders will be starting for his fourth year at Oklahoma State and he comes into it with a career record of 24-7 in games he's started and as the quarterback on the All-Big 12 Preseason Team.

"Spencer has been fantastic for us," Coach Mike Gundy said during Media Day in Arlington, Texas. "He has now become a magician in our offense. He knows it. He can run it fast. He understands."

Familiarity may breed contempt but it also builds victories and that's what Spencer produces with both his arm and his legs.

He has completed 62.4% of his passes for 6,911 yards with 50 touchdowns and 31 interceptions while rushing for 1,565 yards and 10 touchdowns while averaging 4.1 yards a carry.

A lot of the offense is a direct result of his ability to make fast decisions.

"The middle toward the end of last year he started to make really quality decisions in a short amount of time, which is very important in quarterback play in our opinion," Gundy said. "He's tough. He's humble. He doesn't worry about something that he might not have."

His toughness is what really stands out to Gundy.

"There are times that we put him on the field and we were beat up in the offensive line. Never said a word about it. There are times we put him out there and he was playing with true freshmen at wide receivers. Never said a word about it.

"His competitive nature, his toughness allows him to be a really good player, and we want him to relax and enjoy the season, have fun and go out and play good football."

Sanders has become a true leader on a team expected to contend for the title.

"Some of the things I mentioned earlier are what he does to lead our team, in that when things aren't always perfect, he competes," Gundy said. "He fights. We ask him to run, he runs. We ask him to play fast on offense, he plays fast on offense.

"He has the ability to get players to rally around him because of the way that he plays. At times he can be vocal, and then at times he's not vocal. But he's a humble young man. He's extremely competitive, and he's tough. That gives him a chance to have success on every Saturday."

No. 2: Dillon Gabriel, Oklahoma

Oklahoma, under Lincoln Riley as offensive coordinator and head coach, has been blessed at the quarterback position with two Heisman winners in the last five years — Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray.

But it's ridiculous that they now are so blessed, considering their top quarterbacks transferred out after last season. Spencer Rattler, considered a Heisman candidate when the season started who got off to a slow, transferred to South Carolina.

He had been replaced mid-year by Caleb Williams, who is a Heisman candidate this year, but in USC. He followed Riley to the California school meaning new coach Brent Venables had to start over at the position.

No panic, though, he'd done it before as an assistant coach to Bob Stoops, who brought in a Josh Heupel in a similar situation.

"There are certainly parallels in many ways, bringing in an experienced lefty in our first year," Venables acknowledged on Big 12 Media Day. "But to me it goes back just to the people. You've got to be good enough."

And Venables went out and got a good one, transfer Dillion Gabriel out of Central Florida, which will join the Big 12 in a year or two.

The conference's media named him Newcomer of the Year in the preseason voting.

"Dillon Gabriel is a winner. You can't say it any better than that," Venables said.

Going to the most dominant school in the Big 12 shouldn't hurt that reputation.

Gabriel has thrown for 8,034 yards with a 60.4 completion percentage and 70 touchdowns with 14 interceptions. He did miss the last nine games last season with a broken clavicle suffered against Louisville, but he's full go now.

"He's our quarterback," Venables said. "Certainly, anything can happen as we move forward through fall camp. It's always about daily competition. But I feel great I can lay my head down at night knowing not just what he has done on the football field but the quality of the person he is.

"He's about all the right stuff," Venables said. "He's dependable. He's reliable. He's accountable. He's humble. He's one of the hardest workers, shows up early. He's last one to leave. Always working to improve. And he leads by example, and guys follow him. He's a galvanizer of people."

No. 3: Quinn Ewers, Texas

There are many similarities between Ewers and WVU's Daniels, each having gone from a legendary college program to a new school.

Both are extremely talented and each easily could, by the end of this season, be unquestioned as the No. 1 quarterback in the Big 12.

But right now, neither has been named his school's starter, both WVU and Texas preferring to enter summer camp without a designated starter.

Ewers transfers to Texas from Ohio State, where he was procured as the No. 1 recruit in the nation. This is important to the Longhorn coach Steve Sarkisian.

"In my humble opinion, quarterback is the most important position in sports for a lot of reasons," he said, not even bothering to narrow it down to football.

"I think the more quality players you can have in that room for the healthy competition, to push one another, to prepare themselves for their future but also the short-term future of playing a season is vitally important," Sarkisian went on. "We have a unique luxury of having Hudson Card, Quinn Ewers, Maalik Murphy. Those guys are all quality players."

And that is why he will carry the competition, which in reality is between Ewers and Card, into camp.

"No, we haven't made a decision yet, but I don't think it'll take quite as long as maybe last fall took us. We'll see. Time will tell. But I've been really impressed with both these guys in Hudson and Quinn and the work that they've done to prepare themselves," Sarkisian said.

Card has the experience but Ewers has the hype and with an eye on leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, one has to suspect that Sarkisian wants to make sure Ewers gets year of seasoning to be ready for it.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WV News) — West Virginia's baptism into the Big 12 in 2012 drove home the point of how prominent and advanced the quarterback play was in the league.

The Mountaineers went against Baylor in a game where all stops were pulled out in a game that would end with the Mountaineers on top, 70-63.

This was a football game, not a basketball game.

WVU's Geno Smith completed 45 of 51 passes for 656 yards. He threw for eight touchdowns while throwing only six incompletions. Baylor's Nick Florence went 29 of 47 for "only" 581 yards and five touchdowns.

As you let that sink in, consider this about the Big 12. Two Big 12 quarterbacks, Oklahoma's Kyler Murray and Baker Mayfield, won Heisman Trophies, and one year before the Mountaineers joined the conference, Baylor's Robert Griffin III gave the conference three Heisman's in 11 years.

But we've reached a period of transition. While QBs were the coverboys of WVU's first 10 years in the conference, this year none are considered strong Heisman candidates.

In fact, a number of Big 12 teams are going into summer camp in three weeks with quarterback competitions still going on, coaches at Media Day not yet ready to name a starter.

Surprisingly, WVU's Neal Brown is one of them.

We all know that it's going to be difficult for anyone to beat out JT Daniels, the one-time 5-star recruit who has started at both USC and Georgia, never losing a game and in possession of an NCAA Championship ring from last year.

But Daniels has had injury problems that have kept him from completing a season and last year he wound up as the No. 2 QB at Georgia.

Certainly, a player of his stature didn't come to Morgantown to sit, and Brown is probably playing amateur psychologist by sending his talented quarterback room into summer practices thinking that a competition exists.

"He's been tremendous, but he has to go win the job," Brown told ESPN+ when asked about Daniels.

That is the tune he's been whistling, even in the latest depth chart put out by the school, but it still seems to be unthinkable, as inexperienced as the three other quarterbacks — Graham Greene, Will Crowder and Nicco Marchiol — are.

"We made that clear to him during the recruiting process," Brown stressed. "We told him nothing would be handed to him."

All reports are that he has nothing to date to be passed over, so to speak, for the starting role.

"I'm really proud of how he handled it," Brown continued. "He wasn't here during the spring. He had to get his degree from Georgia. He came in during the middle of May and went to work."

He had to learn the system, although he did spend his freshman year as the starter at USC under offensive coordinator Graham Harrell, who takes over that same job here this year. His familiarity with Harrell and the offense makes this a far less difficult adjustment period for Daniels.

He has also worked hard fitting into the locker room scene at West Virginia.

"He's done a really good job connecting with our team. He's done a good job of directing our off-season throwing sessions," Brown said..

And don't think Brown isn't well aware of what he has in Daniels.

"He's really smart. He was one of the top recruits in the country coming out back in 2017. He starts as a freshman at USC, I think only the second one in program history. Then he goes to Georgia and he's 7-0. He didn't lose. The key for him is to stay healthy."

How does Brown go about quarterback competitions?

"Decision making is No. 1, and then leadership, being able to direct the guys in the huddle," Brown said.

But in the end, Brown says, the decision never is a hard one because in the end he doesn't believe he makes the decision.

"Quarterback competitions, when they are going, it's evident who the quarterback will be and the team knows it," Brown said. "It isn't like you have to go out and make a social media announcement or stand up in front of the team and say this is going to be our starting quarterback.

"When a quarterback wins that competition it's very clear. The most important thing for a quarterback is scoring touchdowns. It's really clear who the team believes in, who they are productive for."

To date, Daniels has won over his teammates.

So what's the deal?

Brown is trying to show his three young quarterbacks that he respects their abilities and that he wouldn't be afraid to play them if he had to. He had that in mind when he decided he needed get an experienced transfer quarterback, before the Daniels deal was in the works.

"We had an opportunity in mid-year to go after some transfer quarterbacks. We knew we needed to add some experience at that position, but felt if we added a quarterback at mid-year it would really stunt the development or our young quarterbacks," Brown said.

"We have really good quarterbacks. Graham Greene is only a redshirt sophomore who's an athletic kid with a live arm; Will Crowder will be a redshirt freshman who is really intelligent and is a dual threat.

"And we had one of the top quarterback recruits in the country join us in January in Nicco Marchiol, who has a huge upside," he continued. "We let those guys go through the year, get the reps and see. Now JT has joined them."