COSTA MESA – JT Daniels is a morning person, or at least he has become accustomed to the pre-dawn lifestyle in recent months.
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His sunrise routine started in mid-August: a brush of the teeth, a fresh press of the school uniform, breakfast on the go and then straight to Mater Dei’s football offices for film study while the other overachievers on campus are in zero-period classes.
Every Monday through Saturday in the fall, the Monarchs’ sophomore phenom started his day by dissecting tape in preparation for the team’s next Friday night test.
Just as the tapes stacked up week after week, so too did the wins, the records and the accolades.
“It’s a lot of break down,” Daniels acknowledged. “It’s a lot of time you put in, but if you love the process and love what you’re doing, it’s not even work. And when it’s clicking, it’s a lot of fun.”
Mater Dei’s offense had a special aura around it this season. The Monarchs stomped Bishop Amat, 63-14, in Week 0, and continued that trend in the coming weeks. Mater Dei built up large leads so often that nine of its 10 regular-season outings ended with a running clock.
The Monarchs captured their first outright league title since 1999, and turned in their first perfect regular season since 1997.
With Daniels at the helm – and playing in just the first half of many games – the Monarchs posted perhaps the greatest offensive season in the history of Orange County football. Daniels set county records for passing yards (4,849) and touchdowns (67), and set Mater Dei marks for completions (315), attempts (423) and completion percentage (74.5).
For turning in an unparalleled offensive campaign, Daniels is the Register’s offensive player of the year.
“JT is one of the finer quarterbacks in the country right now,” Monarchs junior wide receiver Amon-ra St. Brown said of Daniels. “He watches the most film out of all the players on our team. Him and our offensive coordinator (Dave Money) work really well together, and there’s a lot of trust there.”
Head coach Bruce Rollinson and Money had so much faith, in fact, that the most impressive part of Daniels’ record-shattering season is that he called every play on his own at the line of scrimmage.
The Monarchs’ lone hiccup of the year was a 42-28 loss to St. John Bosco in the CIF-SS Division 1 final. The Braves, who went on to win a state championship, were the lone squad that slowed down Daniels and the Mater Dei offense. The Monarchs scored at least 42 points in 12 of its 14 games. In its two meetings with the Braves, Mater Dei scored 26 and 28 points.
“From the game aspect – of course you want to win,” the sophomore said of the setback in the CIF Finals. “But it wouldn’t be right of me to look back at a loss and be mad at how great of a team we had. It was just too great of a season, too great of an experience for me, too many great friendships to be upset.”
Daniels tossed three touchdowns and three interceptions in his two outings against the Braves. Against the 12 other defenses he encountered, he carved up those dozen secondaries to the tune of 64 touchdowns, three interceptions.
Through the first seven weeks of the season, Daniels racked up more touchdown passes (40) than incompletions (38), breaking Billy Blanton’s single-season touchdown record (36) by Oct. 14.
He was named Gatorade’s state player of the year earlier this month.
There’s no reason to think Daniels can’t repeat his stellar performance next fall.
The Monarchs are expect to welcome back 10 offensive starters in 2017, including the entire offensive line and most of the team’s fleet of Division 1-bound receivers. Only senior Osiris St. Brown, who is committed to Stanford, won’t be returning.
“This whole season, it was basically all him calling plays for us,” Osiris said of Daniels. “He was calling his own thing. He definitely seemed more calm and not as nervous in big games. When stuff didn’t go our way, he was still positive and smiling on the sideline. He matured a lot.
“Next year it’s going to be even better.”
That’s a harsh notion to stomach if you’re coaching against the Monarchs next season. Best of luck with that film study.
ALL COUNTY FOOTBALL
- OCVarsity Hot Shots: The All-County football team 2016
- All-County football: First team defense
- All-County football: First team offense
- All-County football: First team specialists
- Edison’s Dave White is the O.C. coach of the year
- Mater Dei’s JT Daniels is the O.C. offensive player of the year
- Mission Viejo’s Colin Schooler is the O.C. defensive player of the year
- All-County football: Second Team
- All-County football: Third Team
- All-league football teams 2016
Contact the writer: kconnolly@scng.com