The eight-year recruitment that brought JT Daniels to Rice

Mike Bloomgren was blown away by JT Daniels the first time he watched him play quarterback live eight years ago. Bloomgren had a lot of athletes to monitor at Stanford's prospect camp. Still, the offensive coordinator couldn't take his eyes off the freshman from Mater Dei High School.

"Nothing about him seemed like a ninth grader," Bloomgren recalled Tuesday at American Athletic Conference Media Days. "He could really put a lot of velocity on the ball. He had a very quick release, he was efficient in his movement. But the thing that really blew me away was his ability to talk football at that point in time."