LSU’s football program continues to show that it’s in a win-now mode.
First-year coach Brian Kelly, who is more than two weeks away from his first spring training with the Tigers, confirmed Sunday that quarterback Jayden Daniels of Arizona State had transferred to his program.
The 6-foot-3, 185-pound Daniels, who entered the NCAA’s transfer portal Feb. 18, completed an official visit to LSU on Sunday where he decided to become the 14th player to sign with the Tigers via the transfer portal.
Daniels, who is expected to report to LSU in mid-March, has two years of eligibility remaining.
“Jayden is an outstanding player who will make our quarterback room even stronger,” Kelly said. “He’s a playmaker with a strong arm and the ability to make plays with his feet. We are excited to welcome Jayden to our program as we continue to build a roster of student-athletes who will compete for championships on the field and work just as hard in the classroom to earn their degree.”
LSU is scheduled to begin its first spring under Kelly on March 24 where they were originally scheduled to have sixth-year senior Myles Brennan, redshirt freshman Garrett Nussmeier and true freshman Walker Howard battling for the starting quarterback position.
The Tigers are set to conduct their spring game April 23 at a time to be announced.
Daniels played in a total of 29 games at Arizona State, including all 13 of his team’s games in 2021. He accounted for 7,313 career yards with the Sun Devils, completing 62.3 percent (451 of 723) of his passes for 6,025 yards with 32 touchdowns and 13 interceptions and appeared in two bowl games during his three seasons.
Daniels also rushed 296 times for 1,288 yards and 13 TDs.
He arrived at Arizona State after a heralded high school career at Cajon High in San Bernandino, Calif. where he rated a four-star prospect – the No. 2 dual-threat quarterback by 247Sports – after compiling a 44-10 record and a CIF-Southern Section record 14,000 combined yards and 170 TDs.
Daniels was a finalist for both at Elite 11 Quarterback competition and The Opening.
He became the first player to start in his first college game and led Arizona State to an 8-5 record, including a Sun Bowl win over Florida State, with 2,943 yards passing, 17 TDs and just interceptions. He also added 355 yards rushing and three scores.
Following a COVID-19 shortened 2020 season in which he threw for 701 yards with five TDs and rushed for 223 yards and 4 TDs in four games, Daniels guided the Sun Devils to a second bowl appearance in the Las Vegas Bowl, haven passed for 2,380 yards and 10 TDs and added another 710 and six scores on the ground.
Daniels is not an upgrade. Living in AZ, I got plenty of chances to watch ASU. Daniels was better as a freshman than any year since. He runs well and breaks out quickly but does not make great decisions in the pass game. His arm is not great. He may be strong but decision making and touch passing seems average at best. Watch some of the ASU games down the strech of 2021. This is a questionable move for LSU.
Let’s see if we can coach him up and work on his shortcomings to be a better Qb for the tigers .
Another QB is not what we need! We’ve got what we need for the next 4 years. We need great linemen.