With the start of the college football season just right around the corner, preseason awards lists are coming out almost daily.
LSU was featured on yet another watch list with Jayden Daniels being named to the 2023 Davey O’Brien Award watch list. The O’Brien Trophy goes to the best quarterback in college football annually.
Daniels had an incredible first season in the SEC, throwing for 2,913 yards, 17 touchdowns, and only three interceptions. He also added 885 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground for the Tigers. The Arizona State transfer set program records for rushing yards and rushing touchdowns by a quarterback.
In the first season under Brian Kelly, Daniels became one of two quarterbacks in the country to throw for 2,500 yards and rush for 800 yards, joining former Ole Miss quarterback John Rhys Plumlee, currently at UCF.
Daniels is the leader of the clubhouse right now, but Kelly mentioned at SEC Media Days that Daniels would need to continue to be better or else Garrett Nussmeier is waiting.
“Daniels will start,” Kelly said at SEC Media Days in Nashville. “But he’ll have to continue to improve and progress, because Garrett is getting better every single day, as well.”
“He’s got to continue to progress. He’s got to continue to work. He’s got to continue to move forward, because the guy right there, as well, he wants to take his job, in the right way. They’ve got a great relationship, but he wants his job, too. I think that that’s a really positive situation.”
Daniels currently has the second-best Heisman odds behind defending winner Caleb Williams from USC, so the expectations are very high for the signal caller and leader of the LSU offense in 2023.
The Tigers will open their 2023 season down in Orlando, Florida on September 3rd for the Camping World Kickoff game against Florida State. Kickoff is set for 6:30 and the game can be heard right here on ESPN 103.7 Lafayette and 104.1 Lake Charles.