Jayden de Laura (born August 11, 2001) is an American football quarterback who is a free agent. He played college football for the Washington State Cougars football team before transferring to the

Arizona Wildcats The Arizona Wildcats are the sport, athletic teams that represent the University of Arizona, located in Tucson, Arizona, Tucson. The Wildcats compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I (NCAA Divis ...

football team in 2022.

High school career

De Laura began his high school football career at

Damien Memorial School Damien Memorial School is a private Roman Catholic preparatory school for boys and girls in grades 6–12 in Kalihi, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. Located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, the school is sponsored by the Congregation of ...

in Honolulu, Hawaii, playing on the school's junior varsity team as a quarterback, safety, kicker, and punter before dislocating his collarbone two games into the season. He then decided to focus exclusively on playing quarterback, transferring to Saint Louis School in Honolulu, which produced quarterbacks such as Timmy Chang, Marcus Mariota, Tua Tagovailoa, and

Chevan Cordeiro Chevan Cordeiro (born October 1, 1999) is an American football quarterback for the San Jose State Spartans. He previously played at the University of Hawaii. High school career Cordeiro attended Saint Louis School in Honolulu. He was the backu ...

. De Laura also worked to increase his weight from 140 pounds with help from his family, including his uncle Mel, a former strength & conditioning coach at Hawaii and SMU under June Jones. After sitting out his sophomore year due to transfer rules, de Laura took over the starting job from Cordeiro in his junior season, during which he helped lead the team to a state title while throwing for over 2,000 passing yards. In his senior season, he threw for 3,452 yards and 29 touchdowns and was named the ILH offensive player of the year and Hawaii's

Gatorade Player of the Year award The Gatorade Player of the Year awards are given annually to up and coming high school student-athletes in the United States. They are given for boys' baseball, boys' and girls' basketball, boys' and girls' cross country, boys' football, boys ...

. A three-star recruit by

247Sports 247Sports is an American network of websites that focus mainly on athletic recruitment in college football and basketball. It is owned and operated by Paramount. The website hosts a large network of team-specific subsites, with each subsite b ...

and ESPN, de Laura committed to playing

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

at Washington State on October 2, 2019.

College career

Washington State

Initially unsure about his future at Washington State following the departure of Mike Leach and other offers from schools such as Ohio State, de Laura reaffirmed his commitment to Washington State following the hire of Hawaii head coach Nick Rolovich, whose run and shoot offense was similar to the one de Laura ran at Saint Louis. De Laura was named the starting quarterback for the opening game against Oregon State in 2020, becoming the first true freshman quarterback to start a season opener in program history. He missed one game against

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

after testing positive for COVID-19.

Suspension

De Laura was arrested on February 26, 2021, in

Pullman, Washington Pullman () is the largest city in Whitman County, located in southeastern Washington within the Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest. The population was 29,799 at the 2010 census, and estimated to be 34,506 in 2019. Originally founded as Thr ...

, on suspicion of

driving under the influence Driving under the influence (DUI)—also called driving while impaired, impaired driving, driving while intoxicated (DWI), drunk driving, operating while intoxicated (OWI), operating under the influence (OUI), operating vehicle under the infl ...

and was suspended indefinitely from the football team following the arrest. He was later found not guilty on July 29, 2021.

Arizona

After the end of the 2021 Washington State season on January 7, 2022, de Laura entered his name into the transfer portal. On January 10, De Laura announced his intention to transfer to the University of Arizona. On December 25, 2023, Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch announced that de Laura would be entering the transfer portal for the second time.

Texas State

In January 2024, de Laura transferred to Texas State. On January 24, de Laura withdrew his transfer to Texas State days after settling his civil sexual assault case and public outcry. On February 22, de Laura declared for the

2024 NFL draft The 2024 NFL Draft will be the 89th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players. The draft is scheduled to be held in Detroit, Michigan. Host city Detroit was chosen as the host city on March 28 ...

Statistics

Professional career

San Antonio Bramas

After not being selected in the

, de Laura signed with the San Antonio Brahmas of the United Football League (UFL) in May 2024. He was released on May 20, 2024.

Sexual assault settlement

On May 3, 2023, Hawaii News Now reported that de Laura settled a civil lawsuit stemming from a criminal sexual assault case that was handled in juvenile court. It was reported that De Laura "agreed to pay a woman who said she was raped by the players on October 27, 2018, after the St. Louis Crusaders beat Punahou in the ILH championship game." The woman's complaint alleged that de Laura held and choked the woman "to gain her cooperation" while forcing her to engage in sexual acts against her will. According to the complaint, de Laura texted the woman admitting to the assault. It was also reported that de Laura pleaded guilty to second degree sexual assault. On August 31, 2023, however, a Hawaiian judge struck down the settlement agreement. On January 18, 2024, it was reported that de Laura again agreed to settle the lawsuit. The settlement was reached around the time of his transfer to Texas State.

References

External links

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Washington State bio

Arizona Wildcats bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:de Laura, Jayden 2001 births Living people Sportspeople from Honolulu Players of American football from Honolulu American football quarterbacks Saint Louis School alumni Washington State Cougars football players Arizona Wildcats football players San Antonio Brahmas players