Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels having a ‘terrific’ spring. Here’s what that means
Despite managing a shoulder injury, Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels hasn’t missed a beat at spring football practice.
“He’s been terrific,” said KU quarterback coach Jim Zebrowski on Tuesday.
It’s been a relatively smooth transition for the Jayhawks in managing Daniels’ injury — due to the experience of Kansas backup Jason Bean and third-string QB Ethan Vasko.
Both QBs saw action game-action last season due to Daniels’ shoulder injury. Bean started four games and finished with ten passing touchdowns to three interceptions while Vasko played some snaps in KU’s 43-28 loss to Texas Tech.
“I think what’s really helped is we can keep moving practice along because of the other guys,” Zebrowski said. “Sometimes, if you are doing something like that, sometimes the practices get sporadic and herky-jerky because the other guys maybe haven’t gotten reps.
“It’s helped us being able to keep on trucking with Jason and Ethan, even the young guys getting reps the way we are practicing.”
Zebrowski believes Daniels’ injury makes everybody else better.
“When everybody else is getting reps, what’s awesome is you create depth,” Zebrowski said. “You hear coach (Lance) Leipold talk about depth, depth, depth, and everybody wants to have that and be able to have that — we’re being able to create that in our room which is awesome.”
Last season, Daniels threw for 2,014 passing yards with 18 passing touchdowns and four interceptions while also running for 425 yards and seven more touchdowns over nine games. Daniels made the All-Big 12 second team after his 2022 campaign.
It’s been a little over two months since KU’s 55-53 triple-OT loss to Arkansas in the Liberty Bowl and Zebrowski already sees improvement in Daniels’ play. The same may be true of KU’s high-flying offense.
After all, Kansas’ offense has quite a bit of continuity — the Jayhawks return 90 percent of their offensive production. Last season, KU ranked fifth in yards per play (7.00)
“What’s really fun now is giving coach (Andy) Kotelnicki the opportunity to get us rolling at a high level right off the bat because those guys know what they are doing,” Zebrowski said. “You don’t have to go back to square one. You got guys who do a lot.
While Daniels continues to look better physically in his limited reps throughout the spring slate, perhaps the biggest benefit is a mental one.
Like Kotelnicki said last week, taking limited reps allows Daniels to reflect on his game overall.
“Now when he does have reps, you can start to coach yourself on things you want to improve on,” Kotelnicki said.
Limited reps or not, Daniels’ progression this spring will come down to making the most of the reps he does get — plus the time away from the field. So far, so good.
