Jalon Daniels (born October 29, 2002) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...

. He has been the starting quarterback for the Jayhawks since the end of the 2021 season.

High school career

Daniels attended Lawndale High School in

Lawndale, California Lawndale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 32,769 at the 2010 census, up from 31,712 according to the 2000 census.United States Census Bureau. �” The city is in the South Bay (Los Angeles County ...

. He committed to the

to play college football after previously committing to

Middle Tennessee State University Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU or MT) is a public university in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Founded in 1911 as a normal school, the university consists of eight Undergraduate education, undergraduate colleges as well as a college of Postgr ...

. Daniels also received offers from Air Force, Army, Louisiana, and Syracuse, among others, with Kansas and Syracuse being the only Power Five conference schools.

College career

2020 season

Daniels started six games for the Jayhawks his freshman year. Kansas went 0–9 that season. He completed 76 of 152 passes for 718 yards and threw for one

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Amer ...

and four interceptions.

2021 season

Daniels lost out to Jason Bean for the starting quarterback position during camp. Following an injury to Bean in a November 6, game against Kansas State, Daniels filled in for Bean. He would start for the Jayhawks the remainder of the season. As the starter he defeated Texas for only the second time since 1938, and the first time ever in Austin. The victory over Texas also ended multiple losing streaks: 8 straight overall losses, 18 straight within the Big 12, 20 straight to FBS opponents, and 56 straight in road conference games. The Jayhawks offense improved drastically after he became the starter in 2021, going from averaging 15.1 points per game to averaging 37.7. Despite the 1–2 record in his 3 starts, the Jayhawks were competitive in all three games, losing the two games by a combined score of 9. He finished the season with 860 yards, 7 touchdowns, and three interceptions.

2022 season

After losing the starting job the previous season to Bean, Daniels earned the starting position entering his junior year. The Jayhawks 3–0 start was their best start since 2009. They also won their Big 12 conference opener for the first time since 2009. Daniels recorded five total touchdowns against Houston and 100 yards rushing. For his performance, he won multiple player of the week awards: Walter Camp Offensive Player of the Week, the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week, and Manning Award Star of the Week. Kansas also received votes to be ranked for the first time since 2009. In the Jayhawks September 23, game against Duke, he threw for a what was at the time a career high in yards and passing touchdowns with 324 yards and 4 touchdowns. Following the performance, some sports writers called Daniels a candidate for the Heisman Trophy. After leading the Jayhawks to a 5-0 record and their first ranking in the AP Poll since 2009, Daniels suffered a shoulder injury against TCU in the sixth game of the season. The injury was initially reported as season ending, but Daniels denied the report. He would return for the Jayhawks November 19 game against Texas. Following the conclusion of the regular season, he was named 2nd team All-Big 12, despite missing four games due to his shoulder injury. In the Jayhawks 55–53 loss to Arkansas in the

2022 Liberty Bowl The 2022 Liberty Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 28, 2022, at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. The 64th annual Liberty Bowl, the game featured the Kansas Jayhawks football, Kansas Jayhaw ...

, Daniels set a program record for passing yards in a game with 544 yards. His performance was also a

Liberty Bowl The Liberty Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in late December or early January since 1959. For its first five years, it was played at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia before being held at Atlantic City ...

record.

2023 season

Daniels was selected as the 2023 Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year, the first Kansas player to receive the award. He was also selected as a preseason First Team All-Big 12 quarterback. Daniels was named to the watch lists for the Davey O'Brien Award, the

Walter Camp Award The Walter Camp Player of the Year Award is given annually to the collegiate American football player of the year, as decided by a group of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I FBS head coaches and sports information directo ...

, and the

Manning Award The Manning Award has been presented annually since the 2004 football season to the collegiate American football quarterback as judged by the Sugar Bowl Committee to be the best in the United States. It is the only quarterback award that incl ...

before the season. He missed the Jayhawks' opening game of the season due to an injury suffered during camp in the summer. He returned for the Jayhawks' second game against Illinois. He re-aggravated the back injury during warmups in the Jayhawks game against Texas causing him to miss the game.

Statistics

''Career in bold''

References

External links

Kansas Jayhawks bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daniels, Jalon 2002 births Living people Players of American football from Los Angeles County, California American football quarterbacks Kansas Jayhawks football players Lawndale High School alumni Sportspeople from Lawndale, California