Jayden Daniels showed flashes of promise during his first three college football seasons at Arizona State. But it wasn’t until the signal-caller arrived at LSU ahead of the 2022 season that things really took off for him.
After a solid first year with the team, he became arguably the best player in the entire country during his final season in 2023. He won the Heisman Trophy and eventually became the second pick in the draft for the Washington commanders.
Daniels credited LSU’s culture with helping prepare him for the next level.
“It was just different,” he said of LSU, for Matthew Brune from On3. “The football aspect, the resources you had and the day to day life is nothing more than football out there. They live, breathe and sleep football at LSU, so you have to get used to it. If you don’t like football, they’ll kick you out of that stadium real quick. The guys you hang out with are from the south, so football is all they know and it’s their way of getting out of whatever circumstances they find themselves in. Every day in training, we go back and forth, we are competing and that brings that competitive edge out of you. I’ve always had it inside me, but being down there you walk around like ‘I’ve got that dog inside me’ and if I do a play I’ll tell you about it.”
Daniels added that LSU players have a professional mindset, which makes a small difference coming from the West Coast.
“What happened out there was like what happens in the pros, where everyone is trying to feed their families,” he said. “For me, I learned how to deal with different personalities at LSU. I watched Malik Nabers eat it and it has a personality in it. We’re cool here (on the West Coast), but they’re not out there. It’s just learning how to deal with everyone.”
Now in the NFL, Daniels hopes those lessons will be beneficial as he tries to lead Washington to its first playoff victory since 2005.
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