As of Wednesday morning, Robert McDaniel planned to sign with Arizona.
The four-star quarterback from Hughson, Calif., had been committed to the Wildcats for months and after all kinds of interest from other schools it looked like Arizona was going to hang on.
And then as the day transpired (and rumors started swirling that UCLA offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy was not going to return) things started to change.
Late on signing day, four-star quarterback Madden Iamaleava flipped his pledge from the Bruins to Arkansas and then UCLA was back in the quarterback market.
On Thursday, it was announced Tino Sunseri would be leaving Indiana to become UCLA’s next offensive coordinator and then McDaniel was ready to flip himself to the Bruins.
“Some options appeared that I really wasn’t expecting and they appeared on signing day,” McDaniel said.
“I was able to see that Tino was going to UCLA and me having that relationship with him when he was at Indiana and seeing his pedigree putting quarterbacks all the time in the NFL, that’s how it shot off.
“I definitely was going to sign with Arizona. It was definitely out of the blue for sure.”
For McDaniel, it was a wild 24 hours. From waking up Wednesday planning to sign with Arizona, to holding off, to seeing everything at UCLA transpire and now being signed to the Bruins where he’ll play for Sunseri as offensive coordinator, it’s been a lot.
But the four-star quarterback is excited for his future.
“I didn’t know for sure,” McDaniel said. “I just wanted to be certain in my decision so that’s why I pushed it off and so I did it (Thursday) just so I could talk things over with my family just because it happened so late in the day I wanted to give myself some time and look things over and not rush into a decision that will be my future.
“(Personal quarterback) coach Danny (Hernandez) really introduced (Sunseri) to him and just being able to talk on the phone with him and talk with my family. Just being able to learn how he talks and coaches and the success they’ve had over there and the quarterbacks he pushes out into the league, they’re all succeeding.
“I’m just really confident with what he brings to the table.”
