Jaxson Dart undergoes surgery, out for extended period

USC quarterback Jaxson Dart underwent surgery this week to repair a torn meniscus suffered in USC’s 45-14 win over Washington State last Saturday, per The Athletic.

After coming in for relief for an injured Kedon Slovis, who exited on the opening possession with an injury of his own, Dart had opened up a quarterback controversy with his performance.

In relief of Slovis, Dart passed for 391 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions in the 45-14 victory. He was named Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week and Pac-12 Freshman of the Week for his performance.

Dart appeared to suffer the torn meniscus to his right knee late in the first half of the win over Washington State after getting tackled on a run. Dart grabbed around his knee area after the play, and had a noticeable limp through the rest of the game. He wore a knee brace in the second half. 

Slovis returned to practice during the week after X-rays and MRI results on his neck both came back negative. He remains listed as the starting quarterback on the depth chart. With Dart out for the foreseeable future, Slovis is likely to remain the starter through the rest of the season.

Slovis has started for USC since the 2019 season, taking over for J.T Daniels, who tore his ACL during the season-opener and later transferred to Georgia. 

In three seasons, Slovis has thrown for 5,910 yards and 50 touchdowns. Through three games this year, Slovis threw for 487 yards, three touchdowns and one interception, completing 65% of his passes. 

With Dart out, fellow true freshman quarterback Miller Moss will serve as Slovis’ backup. Moss was a four-star prospect in the 2021 class from Bishop Alemany (CA.).

Jaxson Dart revealed reason for eye black

In USC’s win over Washington State, Jaxson Dart had fans buzzing over his electric play, and his use of eye-black.

The freshman wears his eye-black in a unique way, one single line vertically on his eye.

After the game, a few USC reporters asked him whether or not the eye black would continue and why he wears it in the unique way. 

“Oh yeah, it’ll definitely continue. I started it in high school,” Dart said. “I saw a LSU DB have it one time and I was like, man that looks really cool. And then, I’m a big Star Wars guy…Me and my friends kind of change into Anakin Skywalker. He’s got the scar. And so now, I just go out there and kind of just correlate to Anakin Skywalker (Laughs).”

On3’s Wade Peery contributed to this article.