In the past 3 seasons, JT Daniels started 8 games. That’s it. The former Gatorade National Player of the Year as a high school junior just completed his 4th year of college, and twice, he lost his starting job because of injuries.

For Year 5, Daniels is reportedly looking for his third home.

According to Mike Griffith of DawgNation, the Georgia signal-caller will complete his spring semester in Athens and then be eligible to play immediately as a graduate transfer.

(Daniels couldn’t transfer again as an undergraduate without sitting out a year, per NCAA rules.)

In other words, he’s going somewhere to play immediately. It’d be surprising to see Daniels end up somewhere that had an entrenched starter. Maybe the California kid goes back to the West Coast, or maybe he doesn’t care about geography and he just wants to play.

Whatever the case, these 5 schools would make a lot of sense for Daniels:

Ole Miss

This would be the most obvious destination. The kid who grew up near Los Angeles in Irvine — roughly an hour from USC’s campus — surely had no shortage of experience watching Lane Kiffin coach the Trojans. Daniels could replace Matt Corral, which is ironic considering at this time last year, we were debating who deserved to be considered the SEC’s top returning quarterback. Luke Altmyer showed some promise as a true freshman in the Sugar Bowl, but ultimately, he struggled. Altmyer might not be ready to start for a team with Ole Miss’ aspirations. Hence, why Ole Miss hosted USC transfer Jaxson Dart on a visit. Daniels might be even more desirable given his roughly half a season’s worth of experience against SEC defenses.

It would be a no-brainer for Kiffin to make a major play for Daniels.

Mizzou

I’m old enough to remember when Clemson transfer Kelly Bryant shocked the world and committed to Mizzou to be Drew Lock’s replacement. Granted, that was a different coaching staff in Columbia. Still, we know that Connor Bazelak is off to Indiana and in Year 3, Eli Drinkwitz desperately wants to get his quarterback situation figured out. Brady Cook got an audition in the bowl game, and I’d say the redshirt freshman had an up-and-down day (they went 54 minutes between touchdowns against a service academy). Cook and Tyler Macon are far more mobile than Bazelak, but if Mizzou still can’t stretch the field, the same issues would resurface. Daniels would change that. He’d be able to maximize the abilities of Mookie Cooper, as well as No. 3 overall recruit Luther Burden.

Don’t underestimate the sense of urgency for Drinkwitz, especially if he hopes to avoid any scenario in which Burden bolts after 1 season playing in a limited passing game. And hey, maybe Daniels would like the opportunity to face his former team.

Cal

We’ve reached the “West Coast destination that would make sense” portion of the program. Going back to his home state would be a nice way to finish his career. Daniels could transfer to the school that produced Aaron Rodgers and Jared Goff, and most importantly, he could play immediately. Chase Garbers is off to the NFL, and there’s nobody on Justin Wilcox’s roster with Daniels’ NFL upside. He could work with Bill Musgrave, who spent 2 decades working in the NFL. In the Pac-12, Daniels wouldn’t have to face defenses on the level that he saw at Georgia.

The only hiccup for Cal would be the fact that Wilcox just signed Jack Plummer from Purdue. But Plummer still has 2 years of eligibility left, so perhaps Wilcox could get creative by making Daniels the guy in 2022 and Plummer the unquestioned 2023 starter.

Notre Dame

Think about this scenario. Notre Dame is possibly a preseason top-10 team that will have a new starting quarterback after Jack Coan exhausted his final year of eligibility in South Bend. Brian Kelly is gone, but Tommy Rees remains as the offensive coordinator. He now has total autonomy on that side of the ball. Don’t you think Rees would love being able to land a former 5-star potential NFL quarterback like Daniels? That’s no disrespect to Tyler Buchner or Drew Pyne, both of whom played sparingly as former blue-chip recruits. Sure, you’d risk losing one of them by adding Daniels, but that’s worth it for a team trying to prove that it can take that next step, and that it can be just fine in the post-Kelly era.

If you’re Daniels, you could play for another premier program that is built well on the offensive line. And again, if revenge games are Daniels’ thing, Notre Dame closes the regular season with a trip to USC. That story writes itself.

Baylor

Let’s go a bit off the radar here. It doesn’t make a ton of sense geographically, and Baylor returns Blake Sharpen and Gerry Bohanon. Not many programs with multiple returning starting quarterbacks look to the transfer portal for a new starter. That could prevent Daniels from even considering Baylor. This would be all about how Dave Aranda sells it. He has a preseason top-10 team with all sorts of momentum coming off the Big 12 title and Sugar Bowl win. They did that despite limited production at the quarterback position. Rarely does Baylor have a chance to go land a former 5-star recruit (they have 2 in program history).

Aranda could sell Daniels on being the missing piece to a Playoff team. Daniels could be intrigued by the possibility of facing Big 12 defenses and doing so behind a dominant Baylor offensive line that returns 4 starters, including Big 12 offensive lineman of the year Connor Galvin. The Bears need a new offensive identity with workhorse back Abram Smith off to the NFL. Daniels could provide that and perhaps take Aranda’s squad to new heights.