Jayden Daniels admits adjustment to Brian Kelly's offense 'took a minute'

It definitely took Jayden Daniels some time to grow into his own as the quarterback of Brian Kelly‘s offense at LSU.

After landing the former Arizona State star via the transfer portal last season, many believed Daniels would hit the ground running. That wasn’t the case, but it certainly all worked out in the end for the Tigers, as Daniels elaborated on his early struggles during an appearance on SportsCenter earlier in the week.

“It took a minute,” Daniels explained. “Coach Kelly, he asks a lot from his quarterbacks, he demands a lot. You’ve got to be very intelligent to go out there and pick up his offense, and really try to hone in on what he’s asking the quarterback to do. Each play and every game, there’s different types of things. But that’s the relationship me and Coach Kelly built.

“He got a lot of trust in me and he coaching me very hard because he knows how great I can be and the standard he holds me to. I’m very appreciative.”

From losing his first game to leading LSU to the SEC Championship Game in Year 1, we’re willing to say Daniels made the necessary adjustments last season.

Moreover, many are expecting Daniels to take another leap as he continues to get comfortable, including Summit QB founder, trainer and former NFL quarterback Jordan Palmer, who believes Daniels could take college football by storm in 2023. 

“He may be a little bit of a sleeping giant,” Palmer said, via SI.com. “At other positions, they have a lot of guys, similar to Burrow’s year, where it’s like because the overall team success wasn’t there, you don’t realize how good that guy is, and with the corner or the linebacker or the guard, if you really look at that roster, they got a chance. And if they got a quarterback, they got a chance. And so Jayden being as mobile as he is, he’s not a guy that ever turns it over. I’ve just seen him grow up a lot over the last few years.

“I think he’s poised for a monster year. And when you kind of have that monster year at a school like LSU, when you’ve got NFL guys on your roster, I mean, you can really climb in the draft.”

Daniels finished his first season with the Tigers having thrown for 2,913 yards, 17 touchdowns and three interceptions on a 68.6% completion percentage. He also contributed 885 rushing yards and 11 more touchdowns on the ground — and is only expected to build on that during the 2023 season.

Jayden Daniels is entering 2023 in a much better position than he was in last season in Baton Rouge, and that’s a scary thing for the rest of the college football world.