appearing to choose then it seems reasonable that he is making an informed decision instead of being "afraid of competition."

If the new USC head coach uses limited scholarships to sign a senior from the transfer portal that just played for his prior team, if I were in his position, I would be concerned that the new coach already signaled his bias on a subjective decision of who his starter would be, i.e. it's no longer much of an impartial competition.

Rather, he is going to compete with other undergraduate QB prospects that also hold scholarships from the most prestigious conference in the country. I'm not sure I would characterize anyone competing to line up as a QB against SEC defenses - or who signed as a USC QB prospect - as "afraid of competition."