Kansas Football doesn’t often generate a ton of offseason headlines going into the year. However, with Jalon Daniels back at quarterback for the Jayhawks, Greg McElroy thinks there could be a lot to be excited about in Lawrence.
McElroy thought that college football hasn’t talked about Kansas enough in a recent episode of ‘Always College Football’. He thinks they’ve earned it after their turnaround over the last three years from 2-10 and 6-7 to 9-4 in 2023.
“A couple years ago, Kansas had hosted College GameDay. Kansas had all the buzz in the world going on. Then, they kind of picked right up where they left off last year. Really good start to the season, sitting there ranked in the Top-25,” McElroy recalled.
“Then Jalon Daniels is out. Starting in week five, he did not play the rest of the way, had a back injury,” noted McElroy. “So Jason Bean had to step in. Jason Bean did a good job filling in admirably for Jalon Daniels.”
Daniels decided to come back for a fifth season at Kansas. Through four years, he has appeared in 24 games with several of those being starts amidst being in and out of the lineup. Still, during those outings, he has put up 4,297 passing yards with 31 touchdowns and 12 interceptions on 63.6% completion. He has also run for 13 more scores.
As a junior, Daniels threw for just over 2,000 yards for 18 scored and four picks on 66.1% completion. He then came back last season and, albeit in four games, completed a career-high of his throws at 74.7%.
Now, Daniels is back for what many are hoping will be a healthy season for the redshirt senior. For McElroy, that brings about the question of how many quarterbacks in their new-look league are better than him when he’s ready and available.
“If you want to just take a step back and look at the most dangerous quarterbacks in the Big 12 right now, a league that has long, long been predicated on quarterback play? Granted, it has changed a little bit, for sure. There’s a lot of new faces in the Big 12. There’s a bunch of good quarterbacks, I might add as well,” McElroy prefaced. “How many of those guys would you take over a healthy Jalon Daniels?”
“I’m just posing the question,” said McElroy. “Not saying that you have to take all of them, might take none of them. But, when Jalon Daniels, the starting quarterback for Kansas, is right, there’s very few in the game that are as dynamic as he is.”
During the course of the 2020s, Kansas has gone from a no-win season to a nine-win one over four years. With Daniels back for year four of this tenure, McElroy now wonders what kind of contender that the Jayhawks could now be in their conference as well as nationally.
“I think it’s going to be very interesting to watch Kansas,” said McElroy. “Can they win the Big 12? I don’t know. But you have to take into account that they are 8-2 in the regular season in the last two years when Jalon Daniels played the whole game.”
“You look at just kind of how things stack up with him and how this league has long been dependent on quarterback play? If he can elevate his team then maybe Kansas can be that fly in the ointment that’s flying under the radar right now in the Big 12. Maybe they can find their way to the Big 12 title game. And who knows? Maybe Lance Leipold – he’s a magician, man. He might be able to find his way into the College Football Playoff this upcoming season.”
The post Greg McElroy believes Jalon Daniels should generate more hype for Kansas appeared first on On3.