Hughson’s champion and UCLA-bound quarterback is The Bee’s football player of the year
What started out as a dual-sport athletic path has turned into a dominant career in arguably the most popular sport in America.
Hughson’s Robert McDaniel was a soccer and baseball player early in his childhood before specializing.
When he first picked up a football, he started as a two-way player, but he wasn’t a quarterback.
He made the switch to quarterback the next year, and the rest is history.
McDaniel turned into one of the most successful quarterbacks to come from the Stanislaus District and transformed his future from a likely baseball recruit to a blue-chip Division I football prospect with aspirations of dominating on the next level.
After leading Hughson to its third straight section championship, winning Trans-Valley League MVP honors and securing his spot as one of the best quarterback recruits in the country, McDaniel is The Bee’s Football Player of the Year.
With him as signal caller, Hughson reached the 13-0 mark this season for the first time since 1997 and won its first Trans-Valley League title since 1998. As they have been known to do in recent years, the “Heart Attack Huskies” pulled out their share of close wins. They beat Ripon Christian 28-21, Escalon 24-21 and Sonora 52-51 in back-to-back-to-back weeks and came back to beat Sutter, driving the length of the field in under two minutes and converting the two-point conversion for the 30-29 win and their third straight blue banner.
On the season, McDaniel posted career highs in passing yards (2,889), completion percentage (61.4%), yards per completion (16.1), passing yards per game (222.2), passing touchdowns (34) and QB rate (121.7). He finished the season seventh in the section in passing yards and 12th in total yards.
He did that playing alongside his younger brother, Bryce, who was the team’s leading receiver this season.
“It’s that backyard connection,” Robert McDaniel said. “Growing up together, (we were) dreaming about this.”
McDaniel was pulled up to varsity midway through his freshman year, and by the end of that season, he was a starting quarterback. The next three full seasons have been some of the best in the area. During his sophomore year, his first season as a Day 1 starter, he led the Huskies to section, Northern California and state championships. His junior season, he led a comeback as the Huskies went back-to-back at the section level and during his senior year, he led another comeback to secure a three-peat.
Hughson coach Shaun King said McDaniel owns every single passing record at Hughson and in over 40 career games passed for 7,860 yards, 96 touchdowns and just 20 interceptions. He completed 60% of his passes and rushed for five more touchdowns.
“It is beneficial for you to go into those (big games) more than once and be able to have confidence,” McDaniel said of playing in big games over his career. “I think that definitely helped throughout the years.”
McDaniel is the biggest football recruit the Stanislaus District has seen in years. He popped on the scene at regional quarterback camps. The summer before his senior season, he took the biggest leap into a national recruit at the Elite 11 competition, the biggest quarterback camp in the nation. He was a late invitee after one of the quarterbacks was injured, and in just a couple of days, he went from offseason workouts at Hughson High to throwing alongside the top quarterbacks in the nation. He impressed scouts there and by the end of his senior season was a four-star prospect.
He flipped his commitment from Arizona to UCLA during the fall football early signing period and plans to enroll early. McDaniel will start classes at UCLA when the new quarter starts in early January.
“I’m ready to get out there and explore what’s new and what’s more advanced and all that crazy stuff,” he said. “I’m just excited to get out there.”
McDaniel has done it all during his high school years. He’s played in the biggest games on the state’s biggest stages. Though he wanted to finish his high school career with a state title, he and the Huskies fell in the NorCal title game for the second straight year. Even still, he said the 2024 season was his favorite of his four years.
“I was a senior. I had more of a role in it all, and I would say that we really came together as a team this year,” he said.
This story was originally published January 1, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
