LSU already had one of the most interesting quarterback battles in college football, and on Sunday, the race for the starting job saw a new candidate enter the field.
Arizona State transfer Jayden Daniels announced his commitment to the Tigers, adding a player with three years of starting Power Five experience to the group vying for the top spot. It certainly won’t be a cakewalk if Daniels wants to be this team’s starter, though.
He will be competing super senior Myles Brennan, who missed nearly all of the prior two seasons with injuries, promising redshirt freshman Garrett Nussmeier and an uber-talented five-star true freshman in Walker Howard.
However, in spite of the stiff competition, 247Sports’ Brad Crawford thinks Daniels will ultimately be the player to get the nod in Week 1 against Florida State in New Orleans. Here’s what he said about the quarterback competition.
The SEC’s newest quarterback acquisition, Daniels is coming to Baton Rouge from Arizona State, where he was a three-year starter and difference-maker for Herm Edwards and the Sun Devils. He gives the Tigers big-play potential under center and strengthens the quarterback room considerably ahead of Brian Kelly’s first season at the program. Logic tells you LSU likely would not have taken a signal caller two weeks prior to the start of camp unless the Tigers felt the need for another player in the competition. Brennan has starting experience, but has been often injured during his career and Nussmeier appeared in four games as a freshman in 2021.
As Crawford mentions, wanting another starting experience given Brennan’s injury history makes a lot of sense, and Daniels’ dual-threat skillset provides some nice balance for a quarterback room mostly comprised of pocket passers. That’s not to say Daniels can’t sling it, though.
His best season was his true freshman campaign in 2019, when he finished with an impressive 17 touchdowns to two interceptions on a career-high 8.7 yards per attempt. The Sun Devils only played four games in 2020 due to COVID-19, but Daniels was efficient once again with five touchdowns and one interception.
That efficiency took a dive in 2021 as he threw 10 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, though he did finish with a career-high 65.4% completion percentage and had his best season on the ground with 710 yards and six touchdowns.
He brings a lot of experience to the table, and he’ll certainly have his chance to win the starting spot when he arrives on campus for spring practice.
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