Report: JT Daniels medically retiring from football due to multiple concussions

Rice quarterback JT Daniels, who previously had played for West Virginia, Georgia and USC, medically retired from football on Friday, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. A series of concussions and other injuries spurred Daniels’ decision to retire.

A top-rated quarterback recruit in the 2018 signing class, Daniels began his career at USC. After two seasons there, he transferred to Georgia. Two seasons there didn’t go as planned, leading to a year at West Virginia and now the 2023 season at Rice.

He plans to get into coaching now that he’s done playing.

“I’m definitely excited to get into coaching, that’s for sure. I loved playing. I always knew one day I’d coach. I didn’t think it would come this soon. But one day, I knew that’s what I was going to be doing,” Daniels said to ESPN.

Daniels finished 2023 completing 63.1% of his passes for 2443 yards, 21 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He tallied 9390 total passing yards in his six year college career spanning 41 games.

Daniels’ fourth college stop might’ve been the best fit

Ahead of the 2023 season opener and what was Daniels’ third start against the Longhorns inside DKR, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian spoke highly of him during his press conference prior to the game. He pointed out how much of a great fit that he thinks Daniels is going to be for them considering what he can do at the quarterback position.

“They have a veteran quarterback who, quite frankly? I think this is a perfect fit for JT,” Sarkisian said. “Knowing how they want to run plays at Rice and all of the audibling and things that they do at the line of scrimmage trying to get into the best play? I think JT is a great fit for them.

“He can make all the throws. And then their style with the run game, the play-action pass, I think, really fits him.”

Daniels is a former five-star from California in the 2018 recruiting class. Per On3’s Industry Ranking, he was a Top-15 prospect overall, the No. 3 QB recruit, and the top player out of the state.

“I think it’s a good marriage for JT and it’s a great get for Coach Mike Bloomgren and Rice,” Sarkisian said. “It creates a lot of challenges that way. They’re not going to run a lot of bad plays schematically on Saturday. We’re going to need to be sound.”