WATCH: Jayden Daniels shares story on overcoming weight concerns early in career

LSU starting quarterback Jayden Daniels has been through quite a bit already. After transferring in from Arizona State, he played behind a thoroughly porous offensive line and was sacked four times in a season-opening loss to Florida State.

To many watching unfamiliar with Daniels, some form of the thought ‘is this guy going to make it?’ likely came to mind.

That kind of doubt is nothing new for Daniels, a relatively thin quarterback, listed by the Tigers at 6 foot 3, 200 pounds. In fact, for Jayden Daniels, weight concerns nearly kept him from playing high school football as early as he did.

The LSU signal-caller addressed that Wednesday on the Paul Finebaum Show.

“It was wild. The coaches in high school, they wanted me to start my freshman year, so I needed to get a waiver to go out and play,” Daniels explained. “One, because I was too young to play varsity. And, two, they just wanted to make sure that I was safe with my safety. We had to get a second opinion, they let me play.”

@LSUfootball QB Jayden Daniels weighed 130 lbs his freshman year of high school and needed a signed waiver in order to play varsity football pic.twitter.com/XiFrfkzSBW

— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) September 21, 2022

Good for the Tigers, who were the beneficiaries of some offseason turmoil with the Sun Devils and snagged the lanky quarterback in the transfer portal.

And whatever the weight concerns were back in high school — even if they linger today — Daniels has made it work. He has thrown six touchdowns without an interception so far this season, while adding 225 yards rushing and two touchdowns on the ground.

Weight concerns not holding Jayden Daniels back

If Daniels’ stature leaves you worried, just be assured it’s not something he seems overly worried about. Even in that period in high school when it was unclear he’d be able to play he was taken aback by the concern.

“At first it was kind of like just a shocker,” he said. “You know, you never hear that. But I knew it was all God’s plan, God’s timing. He worked it out in my favor.”

Indeed.

The Tigers have bounced back quite nicely from that season-opening loss to the Seminoles, whooping up on Southern before securing the first SEC win of the season last weekend against Mississippi State.

Daniels has gone 57-of-82 passing for 556 yards and six touchdowns, again, with no interceptions.

Sacks remain a concern — Daniels has now taken eight in the first three games — but Daniels’ toughness does not. Nor do the weight concerns, at least for him.

Daniels and the Tigers will be back in action this weekend against New Mexico at 7:30 p.m. ET in Baton Rouge, La.