Jayden Daniels Transferring to LSU

Sunday evening ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that former Arizona State quarterback Jayden Daniels would be transferring to LSU.

Daniels came out of high school in the 2019 cycle as the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback prospect. He wowed his freshman year throwing for just a shade under 3,000 yards (2,943) with 17 touchdowns versus only two interceptions. He showed off his mobility too running for 355 yards and three touchdowns.

By far and away the best game of his college career came in the 2019 season against then No. 6 Oregon where Daniels threw for 408 yards and three touchdowns including a game-sealing 81-yard bomb to Brandon Aiyuk.

Unfortunately Daniels hasn’t built upon the success from his freshman season. Arizona State only played four games in the 2020 season and Daniels completed 58 percent of his passes for 700 yards, five touchdowns and a pick. Last season Daniels did complete a career-best 65 percent of his passes but had as many interceptions, 10, as touchdowns. But he also added 710 yards on the ground and six rushing touchdowns.

To me this addition is...let’s say curious. LSU has learned better than anybody the past two years that you can never have too many quarterbacks. The best case scenario is Daniels pushes Myles Brennan for the starting job and battles Garrett Nussmeier for the backup job in 2022 and starting job in 2023 while Walker Howard develops.

But I can also see a scenario where Daniels wins the starting job which makes both Brennan and Nussmeier transfer out and LSU’s depth chart looks like the 2018 season where they only had Joe Burrow and Brennan on scholarship. That will be the tricky situation that Brian Kelly and his staff will have to balance.

Daniels is the 29th addition to the 2022 class. LSU still has room to add three more players.