Jayden Daniels

Early life

Daniels was born in Fontana, California, on December 18, 2000, and raised in nearby San Bernardino. Daniels began playing flag football as a cornerback at age five in 2006 and as a quarterback in Pop Warner tackle football in 2008. He also ran track and played basketball and soccer as a youth before starting his freshman year at Cajon High School in 2015. Daniels initially needed a medical note to play due to being considered undersized by the team's coach at 125 pounds (57 kilograms). He started on Cajon's varsity team as a freshman and led the team to the 2015 CIF Southern Section (CIF-SS) Inland Division semifinals.

Daniels broke the little finger of his right hand attempting to recover a fumble in the first game of his 2016 sophomore season but played the rest of the season. He set a state record in 2017 with over 6,400 total yards in his junior season, leading Cajon to a Citrus Belt League (CBL) championship and an appearance in the Division 2-AA state finals. He led Cajon to another CBL championship and an appearance in the CIF-SS Division 3 championship as a senior in 2018. He was the men's recipient of the Ken Hubbs Award that season, given annually the top high school athletes in the San Bernardino area.

Daniels played 53 games at Cajon and set CIF-SS records with 210 touchdowns and over 17,600 total yards. He also participated in hurdling and the 100-meters, 200-meters, 400-meters, and 4 × 100-meters relay sprints at the school. He participated in the 2018 Elite 11 quarterback skills competition, sitting out of the finals due to a practice injury, and threw the game-winning touchdown in the 2019 Under Armour High School All-America Game. Daniels was ranked a four-star prospect and the top dual-threat quarterback of his class by college recruiting website 247Sports and received 25 college football scholarship offers before choosing the Sun Devils of Arizona State University (ASU) in December 2018. He graduated from Cajon and enrolled at ASU in January 2019.

Arizona State

Daniels was named the starter for the Sun Devils' 2019 season after winning a quarterback competition against Joey Yellen in the offseason. He was the first Sun Devils freshman quarterback to start opening week. He earned Pac-12 Conference offensive player of the week honors for week 13 in a 31–28 upset win over the No. 6 ranked Oregon Ducks after passing for 408 yards and three touchdowns, including an 81-yard pass to Brandon Aiyuk with under four minutes remaining. He was named the most valuable player of the 2019 Sun Bowl in a win over the Florida State Seminoles. Daniels set the Sun Devils' freshman passing yards record and was named to ESPN's freshman All-American team.

In the 2020 season, Daniels and the Sun Devils played only four games because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He earned offensive player of the week honors against UCLA in week 5 of the 2021 season with two touchdown passes to Ricky Pearsall of over 50 yards. He led the Pac-12 in completion percentage (65.4%) for the season and guided the team to a 8–4 record and an appearance in the 2021 Las Vegas Bowl. After the season, several of the team's coaches resigned or were fired following an NCAA investigation into COVID guideline violations that prohibited hosting recruits and off-campus travel for team staff; Daniels's mother Regina was also implicated in helping pay for flight tickets. Daniels entered the NCAA transfer portal in February 2022.

LSU

Daniels transferred to Louisiana State University (LSU) in March 2022 to play for the Tigers. He competed with Garrett Nussmeier and Myles Brennan in camp and was named the starter for the 2022 season. In October, Daniels threw two touchdowns and ran for over 100 yards and three touchdowns in a win against No. 7 ranked Ole Miss, giving the Rebels their first loss of the season and earning Southeastern Conference (SEC) offensive player of the week honors. Daniels earned another player of the week honor against the No. 6 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide the following game after running for a 25-yard touchdown with a two-point conversion pass in overtime to win 32–31. He led the Tigers to a 9–3 regular season record and an appearance in the 2022 SEC Championship Game against the No. 1 ranked Georgia Bulldogs. Daniels, playing on a sprained ankle, left the game after being sacked by Jalen Carter late in the second quarter. He returned for the 2023 Citrus Bowl against the Purdue Boilermakers and caught a touchdown pass thrown by wide receiver Malik Nabers in a 63–7 win. Daniels was named a semifinalist for the Davey O'Brien Award and was voted the team's most valuable player after throwing 28 touchdowns and leading the team in rushing yards.

Daniels was named one of the team captains prior to the 2023 season. In Week 3 and 4, he earned SEC offensive player of the week honors after scoring four total touchdowns each against the Mississippi State Bulldogs and Arkansas Razorbacks. Daniels earned another player of the week honor two weeks later with four total touchdowns against the Missouri Tigers. He sustained a concussion from a hit by Dallas Turner in a week 9 game against No. 8 ranked Alabama and left the game. Daniels returned the following week against the Florida Gators and became the first player in NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) history to have 350 passing and 200 rushing yards in a game. He tied an SEC record a week later against the Georgia State Panthers with eight total touchdowns. For the season Daniels threw 40 touchdowns and rushed for 10, led the team in rushing yards and the NCAA with nearly 5,000 total yards, and set the FBS single-season passer rating record. His performance earned him the 2023 Heisman Trophy and Walter Camp Award among other college football player of the year awards; he was the third LSU player to win the Heisman after Billy Cannon in 1959 and Joe Burrow in 2019. He also won the Davey O'Brien, Manning, and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm awards, earned Consensus All-American and All-SEC honors, and was named the SEC's offensive player and male athlete of the year. Daniels sat out of the ReliaQuest Bowl in January to prepare for the NFL draft. He finished his college career playing in 55 games with 16,000 total yards, ranking top ten in FBS history.

Personal life

Daniels was born to Javon "Jay" Daniels, a college football cornerback for the Washington Huskies and Iowa State Cyclones in the late 1990s, and Regina Jackson, who works as Daniels's business manager and agent. He has an older sister named Bianca. Daniels's paternal grandparents died of COVID-19 in early 2021. He was the first starting NFL quarterback with Japanese ancestry since Arthur Matsu in 1928, as his maternal great-grandmother emigrated from the country. He is Christian. He earned a degree in business communications from Arizona State in December 2021 and pursued a Master of Liberal Arts degree at LSU.

Daniels had college name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals with Raising Cane's, Powerade, Beats by Dre, and Urban Outfitters. He was featured on The Money Game: LSU, a six-part NIL-focused 2024 docuseries by Prime Video that followed him, Angel Reese, Flau'jae Johnson, Livvy Dunne, Alia Armstrong, and Trace Young through the LSU Tiger's 2023–24 sports season. In August 2026, Daniels sent a cease and desist letter to LSU in an effort to end their use of his likeness being used in marketing material following the school's decision to allow DJ Pickett to wear number 5 after a previous understanding that it would no longer be assigned. The decision spawned internet memes avoiding the use of 5 humorously out of respect for him.