It is mid-September 2019. Jayden Daniels is starting his third collegiate game as a true freshman. The Arizona State Sun Devils enter East Lansing, Michigan to play the 18th ranked Michigan State Spartans.
Daniels gets pushed around all game, the Spartans defense is very talented and hard to move the ball against. Late in the fourth quarter, the Spartans hold a four-point lead as the Sun Devils get the ball back for likely the last time. Things look bleak as the Sun Devils start all the way on their own 25-yard line.
Despite how dreary it is, Jayden Daniels straps on his helmet and is ready to go. He completes four straight passes to get down to the Spartan 23-yard line. Michigan State takes their stance, ready to fight back and forces a couple of incompletions. Daniels adjusts and runs for 27 yards over the next four plays.The ball is handed off to their running back for a one-yard touchdown and the Sun Devils go on to win the game.
That’s when I was sold on what Jayden Daniels was: A competitor. He isn’t one to back down or give up despite how bad things get. You can find this positive in even the worst of his performances.
Fast forward to today, Jayden Daniels leaves Arizona State amidst a ton of shakeup at the school and heads to Baton Rouge to potentially become the next starting quarterback for the Louisiana State University football team. I say potentially, because it is already a fierce room of three other quarterbacks who will be competing for that starting job.
Who is Jayden Daniels, and why does LSU want to make this thing more complicated at the quarterback position than it already is?
Coming out of Cajon High School in San Bernardino, California Daniels was the third-overall QB in his recruiting class, behind Spencer Rattler and Bo Nix. At Cajon, he threw for 14,007 yards and 170 touchdowns. He also ran for 3,645 yards and 41 TDs.
It’s easy to see why he was so highly touted. His high level of play was backed up by high-level suitors. He was recruited by all of the best of the Pac-12 schools and other powerhouses around the country such as Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia and even our very own LSU Tigers. He chose Arizona State and the rest is history.
He burst onto the scene as a true freshman with almost 3,000 passing yards and a 17:2 touchdown to interception ratio. It was easily his best performance in terms of a quarterback, but it was also arguably his only normal season of his career. He had solid pieces around him, including current NFL players Brandon Aiyuk and Eno Benjamin. He beat No.18 Michigan State but also threw for over 400 yards in an upset against Oregon that knocked the Ducks out of playoff contention.
He definitely regressed after that, but so did everything around him. In 2020, he was surrounded by young players and a new offensive coordinator which already would have put him in a tough position. Then, as we all know, COVID-19 threw sports into a blender and Arizona State was one of the most affected.
Their season didn’t start until November 7th, and after that, they didn’t play another game until December 5th. They couldn’t really establish a groove until they won their last two games in back to back weeks scoring a combined 116 points. This season was basically a wash in my eyes, even though I still don’t think he played poorly at all.
Come 2021, I would count this as what is basically his sophomore season. He was now on his third offensive coordinator. Still surrounded by inexperience and not a ton of talent, outside of his running backs. The football program is also just an overall dumpster fire at this point, being under investigation for recruiting violations. This investigation caused significant turnaround in the program prior to the season starting, not feeding into a productive environment. Now, it’s not all everyone else’s fault.
Jayden Daniels ended up trying to play hero ball a lot during this season. Not always the best decision maker, his 10 interceptions were easy to see coming. The offense was all over the place, it was a new system, he had to focus way more on his legs and making plays happen. He ran for almost 400 more yards than his freshman season on about the same amount of attempts.
From what I have seen throughout his career, I have reason to believe that when given the supposedly very good new LSU offensive staff, with the talent we know for a fact LSU has, he should perform the best of his career.
Mike Denbrock has a type when it comes to quarterbacking. Desmond Ridder, DeShone Kizer, Malik Zaire. All of these players are quarterbacks that are athletic and can run but don’t rely on it ever play. They can make things happen when needed. I think Jayden Daniels can run Denbrock’s system that he has gotten used to with Desmond Ridder very well. He has a great arm. He has all of the tools. It’s clear to me what he brings that other players competing to start this season doesn’t.
The biggest question mark is if he can handle playing in the SEC. Players are bigger and faster than they are out west. He’s tall, but is a skinny player that will be getting hit often. He will have to throw the ball more than he has in the past. I do think he will easily have the best offensive line and skill position talent that he’s ever been presented with, which could make things easier. I also thing he has mostly played well when going against the better teams he has faced.
The job also isn’t going to automatically be his. There are two or three other players that will be vying for the same spot.
Daniels has been faced with a ton of adversity during his career, and it won’t stop here. One thing is for sure, though, he has never been one to back down from a fight.