Jayden Daniels: Moving to the south was a 'huge adjustment'

Jayden Daniels had to adjust to a bevy of things transferring to LSU, both on and off the field.

While his football talent translated fantastically going from Arizona State to the Tigers, Daniels had to get used to living in the south, which was a huge difference from the West Coast, where he grew up and began his college football career.

“It was a huge adjustment, coming from the West Coast,” Daniels explained, via SportsCenter. “I was in California, Arizona, being very similar in how things move, how fast-paced everything’s going. Now you come out here in the south and everything’s slower, but football means a lot more.

“Going out there and being able to enjoy the time with the people and just get to be fascinated how the south moves and how everybody goes about their day in the south.”

Alas, we’ve seen quarterbacks like Bryce Young go from the West Coast to the SEC and have tremendous success, and Daniels actually stopped Young from getting back to the SEC Championship Game last season. Nevertheless, Young’s move paid off in spades for his football career, as he won a Heisman and was selected first overall in the 2023 NFL Draft, and now Daniels is having his own success, as well.

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.”

Moreover, 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.

As Jayden Daniels gets more and more comfortable in the SEC, the rest of the college football world better get prepared for the storm that’s brewing.