After an offseason of attrition around the league, LSU will be one of the handful of squads that returns its starting quarterback from the 2022 season in [autotag]Jayden Daniels[/autotag], who has the potential to be the league’s best signal-caller.
Daniels had some fantastic games last fall, and he has the chance to take an even bigger leap this season. Talking to the media on Tuesday, coach [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] said the key for Daniels when he decided to return to LSU was his physical development.
“When Jayden made the decision to come back I think there’s a number of things that are on the table for discussion and you start with the physical development, right,” Kelly said, per On3. “Certainly looking at how we can put together a plan for his strength and conditioning.”
Kelly said that developing a comprehensive plan for Daniels was a major factor in convincing him to return to Baton Rouge for another season rather than test the NFL draft waters.
“Part of this is we had to recruit him back too, so we had to give him a comprehensive plan as to what we we’re going to do in the weight room, how we were going to continue to develop him technically as a quarterback, all of those pieces,” Kelly said. “And then utilizing the resources that we have here, we have VR, we have the ability to train year round, having receivers here for him. It was really just having a comprehensive, year-round training program for him right here.
“And then providing him the opportunity to do other things as well, as you know, he went out on the west coast and trained with other elite quarterbacks, providing him the contacts to do that. So I think more than anything else it was just really continuing the development of a quarterback that’s in that stage. And when we were able to meet he saw that we had a comprehensive plan, I think it helped him make his decision.”
Daniels had a major bounce-back season after struggling in 2021 at Arizona State, finishing with 2,913 passing yards and 17 touchdowns through the air to go with 885 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground.
The prolific dual-threat player will be back in 2023 hoping to build upon last year’s performance, and it seems he’s off to a good start in terms of preparation.
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