Former USC quarterback Sam Darnold has had a hell of a career revival this season: after signing with the Seahawks in March, he led Seattle to a No. 1 seed in the NFC and is tabbed as the favorite to win Super Bowl LX MVP this weekend. But contrary to popular belief, Darnold is actually not USC’s first signal-caller to start in the Super Bowl.
Two-time Super Bowl champion, five-time NFL champion and eight-time Pro Bowler Willie Wood first made history back in 1957 as the first African American QB to play in the Pacific Coast Conference, predecessor to the Pac-12. After going undrafted in the 1960 NFL draft, Wood wrote to teams requesting a tryout. Only one coach responded: Vince Lombardi.
Wood joined the Green Bay Packers as a rookie free agent that year, and quickly made the move from quarterback to free safety. Though he found great success with the Packers (five-time First-team All-Pro), it’s hard to untangle Woods’ transition to the safety position from the complicated histories of Black quarterbacks in the NFL. Those histories will forever be fragmented, made incomplete by eugenicist racial bias around athleticism and cognitive ability that limited opportunities for Black QBs.
Could Wood have been a great NFL quarterback? We’ll never know. But because he started in Super Bowls I and II, Darnold is technically not the first USC QB to start in the Super Bowl, but the first USC QB to start at the quarterback position in the Super Bowl. Given the program’s reputation, it still raises the question: How did it take this long?
First, USC is historically a running backs program. ‘Tailback U’ churned out four Heisman-winning backs (Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson, Charles White and Marcus Allen) before a quarterback ever garnered the award for the Cardinal and Gold.
The turn of the century brought a new culture. New offensive coordinator Norm Chow gelled with senior QB Carson Palmer, who had strung together a scant 16-16 record as a starter coming into his senior season. Palmer went on to win the Heisman Trophy in 2002 after leading the Trojans to an 11-2 record and an Orange Bowl victory over Iowa.
Palmer has been succeeded by two more Heisman-winning Trojan quarterbacks: Matt Leinart and Caleb Williams. As a program, USC has seen 26 QBs drafted into the NFL, the most by any program in the nation with six being taken in the first round. Despite USC’s Tailback U origins, the school emerged as a legitimate quarterback factory but has historically fallen short of the big game.
To put that into perspective with other programs across the nation, California has had four starting QBs in the Super Bowl — Aaron Rodgers, Jared Goff, Craig Morton and Joe Kapp. Notre Dame (Joe Montana, Joe Theismann, Daryle Lamonica), Alabama (Bart Starr, Joe Namath, Ken Stable) and Purdue (Drew Brees, Len Dawson, Bob Griese) have each had three starting QBs in the Super Bowl. Even Delaware has had more Super Bowl-starting QBs than USC, with Joe Flacco and Rich Gannon.
So how does a program that produced the most quarterbacks in the NFL end up with so many near-misses? To understand why Darnold’s start is such a breakthrough for USC, it helps to look back at the highest drafted Trojan quarterbacks and where it all went wrong.
Todd Marinovich, USC QB from 1989-1990
The Los Angeles Raiders drafted Marinovich 24th overall in 1991 despite a recent arrest for drug possession and a public screaming match with USC head coach Larry Smith at the John Hancock Bowl just months earlier. He started seven regular season games and one playoff game across the 1991-1992 seasons, after which point former Pro-Bowler Jay Schroeder retook the starting job. Marinovich was suspended for the 1993 season after failing his third NFL drug test, and never played in the league again.
Marinovich’s struggles with addiction are often attributed to his upbringing. Groomed for football excellence since birth, “ROBO QB” garnered national attention from a young age due to his parents’ decently publicized efforts to make him into the perfect athlete through strict regimentation and discipline. At USC, the pressure built. Attendance issues and a strained relationship with Smith limited Marinovich’s options. He had the shortest stint in the NFL of all the Trojans selected in the first round, though he spent some limited time in the Canadian Football League and Arena Football League and played semi-pro for the SoCal Coyotes.
Carson Palmer, USC QB from 1998-2002
After a decorated collegiate career, Palmer was selected with the No. 1 overall pick by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2003 NFL draft. In his second season, he led the Bengals to win the AFC North and led the league in passing touchdowns (32) and completion percentage (67.8%).
What seemed to be the emergence of the Heisman-winning Trojan quickly faded as Palmer tore his ACL and MCL on the second play of offense in that year’s AFC Wild Card game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. After a few seasons of disappointment, frustrations grew between him and the franchise, with Palmer even threatening to retire before being traded to the Oakland Raiders in 2011.
His career looked to be revived under head coach Bruce Arians after suffering a second ACL tear in 2014. Palmer responded with the best year of his career — setting career highs with 4,671 passing yards and 35 touchdowns and earning a second-team All-Pro selection in 2015. Palmer led the Cardinals to their best season in franchise history with a 13-3 record and reached the NFC Conference Championship game.
There was only one problem. Palmer ran into the best team in the NFL that year: the Carolina Panthers, led by league MVP Cam Newton. There was a bloodbath in Charlotte, North Carolina that night as the Panthers destroyed the Cardinals 49-15. Palmer finished with a rating of 43.2, throwing four interceptions including a pick-six to recently selected Hall of Famer, Luke Kuechly.
That would end up being the peak for Palmer and his NFL career, as he would only go on to play two more seasons. After breaking his arm in 2017, Palmer retired from the NFL at the end of the season.
Matt Leinart, USC QB from 2003-2005
Leinart followed Palmer’s USC career by winning the Heisman, two national championships, a 37-2 overall record as a starter and setting 16 school records including 99 passing touchdowns.
As a result, Leinart was a highly touted prospect and selected by the Arizona Cardinals with the No. 10 overall pick in the 2006 draft with the expectation that he would take the starting job from veteran Kurt Warner. Leinart couldn’t quite live up to his collegiate play and was sent back to the bench, as Warner resurged and led Arizona to the Super Bowl in 2008.
After Warner retired in 2010, Leinart was outplayed by Derek Anderson and the Cardinals released Leinart after four seasons. With the Houston Texans, Leinart sat behind Matt Schaub and then received the starting job after an injury but then became injured himself which ultimately marked the end of his NFL career.
Mark Sanchez, USC QB from 2005-2008
Sanchez was selected by the New York Jets with the No. 5 overall pick. The “Sanchize” was born, with Sanchez leading the Jets to the AFC Conference Championship for two straight years in his first two seasons. But as quick as the nickname and hype arrived is just as quick as it ended.
Sanchez and the Jets failed to make it to the Super Bowl on both occasions, losing to Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts in 2009 followed by Ben Roelthisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2010.
The 2009 Rose Bowl MVP was later released from the team in 2014 after failing to make the playoffs and missing the entire 2013 season with a shoulder injury. His infamous “Butt Fumble” against the Patriots on Thanksgiving 2012 became widely known as one of the worst plays in football history. Sanchez would spend the rest of his career as a backup and journeyman before retiring from the league in 2019.
Caleb Williams, USC QB from 2022-2023
It may still be too soon to gauge the 2024 No. 1 pick’s ceiling in the NFL after only two seasons. What we do know after his second season is that the ‘Iceman’ has broken more than a few Bears franchise records and brought the team back to national prominence, ending the 2025 regular season with 3,942 pass yards and 27 TDs. An overtime loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the divisional round a few weeks ago certainly stings, but Williams’ future in Chicago appears bright.
The history of USC quarterbacks is a complicated one. What remains to be seen is whether Darnold will cement his status among the football greats, or if he’ll become the latest in a series of ‘Projans’ to falter in the NFL spotlight.