Jayden Daniels and Kedon Slovis represent college football's newest trend
LOS ANGELES - Arizona State offensive coordinator Rob Likens searched far and wide last year, crisscrossing the country in search of a quarterback recruit who could come in and compete right away for a starting spot.
He was blown away by how many eligible candidates he found.
"Last year's class was nice," Likens said. "Absolutely."
It wasn't long ago that such a task would have felt futile. Perhaps as much as any position in football, quarterback required development. Conventional wisdom used to call for almost all signal callers to sit on the bench at first, believing they needed seasoning while awaiting their turn.
There were some exceptions, including Jared Goff starting in his first season at California in 2013. But they were few and far between.
"He was the rare guy to start (as a
