‘It was surreal’: Inside Hughson quarterback Robert McDaniel’s offseason, Elite 11 experience

Hughson High quarterback Robert McDaniel has had a busy summer and chances are he wouldn’t have it any other way.

The rising senior is coming off passing for 2,839 yards with 33 touchdowns and just four interceptions in 2023. Instead of taking a break, he got back to work.

Then he got a call to attend one of the biggest high school quarterback competitions in the country, the Elite 11 .

Coined “The nation’s premier quarterback camp series and competition” the Elite 11 finals were June 18-20.

McDaniel competed in the Elite 11 Las Vegas regional combine May 5 so event organizers saw him throw in person. Then it was the waiting game, to see if he made the final cut.

McDaniel was a late addition to this year’s Elite 11.

The selection committee picked 20 of the top quarterback prospects in the country to compete in the event about a month ago and McDaniel says he was told he was No. 21, which meant if anyone dropped out, he would get the call.

He was called to participate in the Los Angeles-based event Monday, June 17, one day before it started, and was given 38 plays to memorize. He buried his head in the playbook and watched zoom meetings on the drive down.

“I didn’t get the call at first because I was in practice,” he said. “So then coach King told me to go get my phone. I called (the Elite 11 coach) back and it was crazy. I didn’t really expect it. Especially with it being the next day.”

Day 2 was his most impressive. According to Rivals.com he shined in the pro day portion of the event, finishing among the top handful of performers.

“I felt like I belonged,” McDaniel said. “When I got there I knew I just had to have fun. I knew I could throw the football so I was pretty confident in myself.”

His performance at the competition only proved what college scouts have known for a long time: the kid can spin it.

McDaniel received his first Division I offer from Arkansas State in June 2023 and in the past year has racked up nearly 20 scholarship offers from Division I schools across the country, according to 247Sports.

The three-star quarterback originally committed to Cal Berkeley but flipped to the University of Arizona in late May. He built a relationship with the coaching staff while they were recruiting him to play at San Jose State. When those coaches moved to Arizona and added offensive coordinator Dino Babers from Syracuse in February, McDaniel knew it was where he wanted to be.

“When the staff left from Arizona to go to Washington, the San Jose staff basically picked up all their stuff and went to Arizona. I had a great relationship with them at San Jose and the relationship kind of carried over to Arizona,” McDaniel said.

In the grand scheme of the California recruiting circuit, the Sac-Joaquin Section, more specifically, the Stanislaus District, is often overlooked. You see high-caliber Division I football prospects come from the Sacramento area with schools like Folsom, Rocklin and others, but a national Division I prospect from Hughson? Almost unheard of.

The Huskies have at least two: Arizona-bound McDaniel and tight end/defensive lineman Max Mankins, who recently committed to Air Force.

Earning an invitation to one of the elite high school football summer combines, McDaniel showed the kind of talent tucked away in the heart of the Sac-Joaquin Section.

“It was awesome, honestly, because not a lot of people heard of that, they’re like ‘Houston? Like in Texas?’” McDaniel said. “They’re not really expecting that from a small town or anything like that. It was surreal.”

Other than big time college commitments and traveling for elite national competitions, McDaniel has been working with the Huskies on a three-peat. They have gone to 7-on-7 competitions like the passing league at Downey High each Tuesday in June to sharpen his chemistry with receivers ahead of the 2024 season.

This spring he did not play baseball, the other sport he has been playing since he was young, to participate in football spring practice. He and returners Malakai Sumter, Mankins and his younger brother Bryce will look to lead the offense.

The Huskies won section and state titles in 2022 and repeated at the section level in 2023. Last season, McDaniel’s motto was to “pay it forward” to the senior class. As this year’s senior, he wants to end on a high note.

“Our expectations are the exact same as last year,” he said of the anticipation heading into this season. “Going into the season, we have the potential to win every game, but we’ve got to play up to our standards and play our game.”