Recap of Jayden Daniels’ Historic Heisman Trophy Regular Season
From Playing Through Grief to the Best Player of the Season
Into the History Books… 🤩
LSU’s Jayden Daniels was recently announced as this year’s Heisman Trophy winner, only four years after another prolific Tiger passer, Joe Burrow, walked away as the nation’s best college football player. However, his path to stardom has not been easy, yet he has persevered and will soon be plying his trade in the NFL.
Triumphing Over Adversity
National titles, awards, and historic accomplishments are all the byproducts of natural athletic ability, hard work, and mental toughness. As fans we only see the window dressing manifesting in championship banners, glitzy trophies, and austere plaques adorning the Hall of Fame of your choice.
What we don’t see are the personal struggles that preceded those accomplishments. We live our own lives and pause, now and again, to marvel at those who can do what only the rest of us can dream. We applaud those feats but rarely do we know the person inside the machine that makes us ooh and aah when they do what they were born to do.
Such is the case with Jayden Daniels , the young quarterback who led the LSU Tigers to a 9-3 record this season in the toughest conference in NCAA football. Daniels also won the Heisman Trophy after his final season in the college ranks with numbers that trumped all others.
LSU QB Jayden Daniels put up video game numbers this year.
GENERATIONAL TALENT. 🍿 pic.twitter.com/EJkzHlE3sZ
— College Football Alerts  (@CFBAlerts_) December 8, 2023
When the dust settled and the smoke cleared on the Tigers’ 2023 regular season, Daniels’ stats told an impressive tale. The 6’4” senior passed for 3,812 yards, 40 passing touchdowns with only 4 picks, and completed 72.2% of his passes.
Jayden Daniels put up INSANE numbers since transferring to LSUđź—Ł pic.twitter.com/bF1D0C0BxL
— PFF College (@PFF_College) December 11, 2023
Jayden Daniels: College Football Phenom
But what separated him from the other lethal gunslingers in the college ranks was his ability to run like a world-class tailback. He amassed 1,134 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns on an 8.4 yards per carry average. In short, he was the best of the best and few could argue the point.
Before you or I ever heard of Jayden Daniels and the college football news that he would make; he was a 4-star recruit out of Cajon High School in California and was ranked as the No. 2 dual-threat quarterback coming out of high school. He landed at Arizona State and became the school’s first starting true freshman quarterback in its program’s history.
His first season at ASU ended with Daniels receiving an honorable mention as the Pac-12 Freshman Offensive Player of the Year. However, dark clouds were swirling as the COVID-19 pandemic paralyzed the nation and the world.
During that time, Daniels’ beloved grandparents, William, and Betty Daniels, fell victim to the plague and both passed away within a month of each other.
Jayden Daniels said after his team’s 42-23 win over UCLA on Saturday night that his performance was for his grandfather, who passed away from COVID-19 in January. Friday would have been his birthday.https://t.co/sSdEEB9nu7 pic.twitter.com/viCe6VieCO
— SunDevilSource.com (@SunDevilSource) October 3, 2021
Only weeks after Betty died, Jayden’s father, Jay, delivered the news to his son, “ Paw-paw passed away .”
William Daniels was not only a grandfather to Jayden; he was his mentor, his rock, and the sage on the mountaintop. He knew what to say and when to say it. There was no room for self-pity when things got tough, just a desire to improve and succeed.
Jay Daniels said during this difficult time he would have conversations with Jayden that went along the following lines:
“Are you OK?” Jay would ask.
“Yes, I’m OK,” Jayden would answer.
“Neither of us were OK,” Daniels’ father now confesses.Â
Jayden Daniels will enter the NFL Draft this April as a highly-touted prospect, and recent mock drafts have him climbing the draft boards to as high as No.2 behind North Carolina’s Drake Maye and in front of USC’s electric Caleb Williams.
HEI5MAN.
Jayden Daniels put on a show this season 🔥 pic.twitter.com/qvNH9Ukx3q
— College Football Report (@CFBRep) December 9, 2023
But regardless of what happens in the future, Jayden Williams will always be the product of good stock and if nothing else, the world now knows of William and Betty Daniels.
Author: Sin City Sniper
Author: Sin City SniperBusting bookmakers and taking their money is his greatest joy in life. He’s been around the block more than once, knows the players both on and off the field of battle, and uses his experience to serve the bookies a heaping plate of humble pie washed down by a warm glass of their salty tears. You can find him in any number of Vegas books, sniping weak lines and getting paid to do it.
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