LSU Quarterback Jayden Daniels threw four touchdown passes as he made his final case for the Heisman Trophy in a come-from-behind 42-30 win over Texas A&M on Saturday in Tiger Stadium. Daniels threw for 235 yards and rushed for 120 yards. Tigers Coach Brian Kelly says Daniels made a strong closing argument for college football’s most prestigious award.
“You throw four touchdown passes against a (top 10) defense, you put up 42 points, it sure as heck can’t hurt you and then obviously running the way he did, I just think he strengthened his case for the Heisman,” said Kelly.
Daniels was held in check in the first half as he only threw for 52 yards and rushed for 59.
LSU was down ten points in the third quarter and the Tigers were facing 4th and four from their own 47-yard line, when Daniels broke off a 44-yard run. It was a game-changing play. That set up a Josh Williams touchdown and after the extra point, LSU was down by just three points.
LSU’s defense was not great, but they came up with a couple of critical stops in the second half. A&M had a 13-play drive after the Williams touchdown, but it ended in no points for the Aggies because of a missed field goal.
Early in the fourth quarter, LSU linebacker Greg Penn intercepted a pass setting up the Tigers’ offense at the Aggies’ 39-yard line. Three plays later, Daniels connected with Brian Thomas Jr. on a 23-yard TD pass as he made the grab over a defender. Daniels says that play got the offense going.
“Obviously we are going to have ups and downs, we are going to have adversity and for us to stay the course and really just go out there and see us start clicking….when Brian ‘Mossed’ the dude, I would say that’s when it all clicked for us,” said Daniels.
Daniels threw two more touchdown passes and fitting for his final game in Tiger Stadium, they went to his two other top receivers. Malik Nabers made a fantastic grab in the end zone to give LSU a 35-24 lead.
The final touchdown pass went to Kyren Lacy, giving Daniels 50 total touchdowns between passing and rushing.
According to ESPN, he’s just the fifth quarterback in SEC history with 50 or more touchdowns in a season. The other four were Heisman Trophy winners. Florida’s Tim Tebow with 55 in 2007, Auburn’s Cam Newton with 51 in 2010, LSU’s Joe Burrow 65 in 2019, and Alabama’s Bryce Young had 50 in 2021.
According to LSU’s Chief Brand Officer, Cody Worsham, Daniels finished the regular season with more yards per game (412.3) and a better passer rating than any player to win the Heisman Trophy. And he’s second only to Joe Burrow in scoring, 25 points per game. Burrow was 26.1.
My favorite Daniels for Heisman stat is 90 plays of 20-plus yards. The next closest player is 61. He’s literally a human first down, averaging 10.35 yards per play.
Daniels is not the only individual award-winner candidate from this historic LSU offense. Malik Nabers had 6 catches for 122 yards and two touchdowns. He had 57 more yards after the catch.
Nabers’ numbers indicate he should win the Biletnikoff Award as he caught 86 passes for 1,546 yards, 14 touchdowns and averaged 129 receiving yards per game.
Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Junior is another top candidate and he’s caught 67 passes for 1,211 yards, 14 touchdowns, and averaging 101 receiving yards per game.
Nabers is 22 yards short of LSU’s career record for receiving yards. He’s trying to surpass Josh Reed, who had 3,001 yards from 1999 to 2001. Nabers says he may play in the bowl game so he can break the record.
Daniels is non-committal about playing in a bowl game. But we know he’ll be in New York for the Heisman Trophy presentation on December 9.
He appears to be the front-runner, but Oregon’s Bo Nix has another chance to impress Heisman voters when the Ducks play Washington in the Pac-12 Championship game.
Nix could lead a team to a conference championship and an appearance in the College Football Playoff, but Daniels’ numbers can’t be ignored.
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