By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE — The list of LSU’s All-SEC first-team quarterbacks could fit on a matchbook cover.
There’s Tommy Hodson, who became the school’s first honoree in 1986 for the first of three straight seasons 53 years after the SEC was formed.
There’s JaMarcus Russell, the rocket-armed QB who achieved first-team league status in 2006.
And of course, there’s 2019 Heisman Trophy-winning QB Joe Burrow, the second LSU QB to earn All-American first-team status. (A future NFL MVP, Bert Jones, was the first, but the Ruston Rifle was not chosen for first-team honors on a pair of All-SEC teams in 1972.)
Hodson, Russell, and Burrow – the latter pair, both No. 1 NFL Draft picks (Jones was, too).
They are the only three Tigers’ QBs to earn All-SEC first-team status from more than one organization.
It’s no surprise the common denominator why Hodson and Burrow were first-teamers is LSU threw the ball frequently in those seasons. Most of the rest of the time in the last 60 years of LSU football, the Tigers rarely had a head coach who believed a great passing attack could consistently win games.
The combination of Burrow, receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson and one-year wonder boy passing game coordinator Joe Brady burned through college football like a comet en route to the 2019 national championship.
Of all of Burrow’s gaudy offensive numbers, the one that may last in the record book the longest is 60 TD passes in 15 games, an average of one TD pass per quarter.
No LSU fan believed any future Tigers’ QB would ever approach Burrow’s offensive output. After all, he has achieved lifetime sainthood status throughout Tiger Nation with a Heisman and a national title.
But as far as the top four LSU QBs ever and on track for an All-SEC first-team selection, current starter Jayden Daniels has entered the conversation. Daniels is doing something Burrow never had to do, He has to win games by scoring a ton of points because LSU’s 2023 defense has allowed more points in the first six games of the season than any defense in Tigers’ history.
The senior transfer from Arizona State has transformed from a reluctant downfield passer in the first half of last season with the Tigers to college football’s most dangerous dual-threat quarterback.
A year ago at this time in a 21-17 comeback win at Auburn, he had a mere 139 yards total offense including 8-of-20 passes for 80 yards (39 on one play).
A year later as the 22nd-ranked Tigers prepare to host Auburn Saturday at 6 p.m. in Tiger Stadium, Daniels leads the SEC in nine stat categories and is No. 2 nationally in total offense (398.5 yards per game), passing TDs (19), pass efficiency (196.7 rating) and points responsible for (140). He’s also No. 3 in the nation in passing yards per game (328.2).
And quite honestly with five consecutive games in which he’s had four or more TDs (passing and running) –the only LSU QB to accomplish that feat — he’s the only reason the Tigers are still alive in the conference race.
He’s become a human Heisman Trophy candidate highlight film, but don’t mention the `H’ word to Daniels. It doesn’t exist in his mind.
“You hear stuff like that, but you can’t really believe and to listen to the noise and the hype,” Daniels said. “As soon as you start believing in that, that’s when God will humble you.”
Week-after-week, he has been forced to and responded with epic performances filled with perfectly-placed deep TD passes and fearless scrambles through defenses waiting to get their shots at him.
Last Saturday in LSU’s 49-39 win at Missouri when Daniels threw for 259 passing yards and three TDs and ran for 130 yards and a TD on 15 carries, he was hammered throughout the game. He led the Tigers on TD drives of 92 and 75 yards in the final 11:23 after leaving the game with bruised ribs from a blow he received on a TD run that was nullified by a penalty.
“Sometimes, we tell J5 to just run out-of-bounds,” LSU offensive tackle Emery Jones Jr. said. “But we’re never worried about him. When he gets knocked and we pick him up, he’s smiling and looking at the sideline for the next play.”
While Burrow certainly never had Daniels’ wheels and Daniels’ doesn’t instantly recognize like Burrow where to throw the ball within three seconds after a snap, the one thing they have in common is a will to win.
If that means putting their health at risk, so be it.
“Whenever the opportunity there to go take the yards, if we need a tough yard or if we need a third and long for a first down, I gotta go get it,” Daniels said. “It’s not really like a mindset thing. It’s just instinct and a feel thing for me.”
It was obvious in Daniels’ 29 Arizona State starts, that his skill set of having wide receiver speed made him dependent on bailing from passing pockets rather than going through his progressions.
It’s a habit that took almost his first six games in his first season last year to break.
It’s also why LSU second-year Brian Kelly beams like a proud poppa when speaks of Daniels’ growth as a player.
“Jayden was not progressing,” Kelly said. “He wasn’t going through his reads, he was coming off from them too soon. He wasn’t staying in the pocket. He wasn’t being patient. He was he was doing some of the things that get you 80 yards throwing (against Auburn).
“We gave him a good plan and he’s fixed a lot of those things. It’s put him in a position that he’s one of the top if not the top quarterback production-wise in the country.”
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com