How Kansas Jayhawks quarterback Jalon Daniels reflects on his legacy in Lawrence
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Daniels must beat No. 14 Utah Friday to reach a bowl and extend his career.
- Daniels leads KU turnaround, remains focal leader despite uneven recent results.
- He values team legacy and personal connections as his lasting Kansas memory.
It’s hard to believe, but the college career of KU quarterback Jalon Daniels is finally nearing its end.
The sixth-year QB and his Kansas Jayhawks (5-6. 3-5 Big 12) must beat No. 14 Utah on Friday to qualify for a bowl game and extend Daniels’ career.
Otherwise, Friday’s game is the last time Daniels will don the crimson and blue as a player. He and 32 other seniors will be honored with Senior Day festivities at Friday’s 11 a.m. game.
KU’s season hasn’t exactly gone as planned, of course. The Jayhawks have lost multiple winnable games. Perhaps Kansas’ record should be better than it is.
But Daniels isn’t concerned with all that. As always, he’s focused only on the game in front of him.
“You could always say that any single game,” he told The Star when asked whether some of KU’s past results bother him. “You could say that about your wins — ‘If this one play went their way, they would have been able to get a win.’ I don’t live my life in what ifs, because at the end of the day you will just continue thinking about, ‘OK, what if I did this differently?’
“The one thing I’ll say is I continue to prepare for every single game no differently from the others because ... if you feel like you need to do more for certain teams then you’re not confident in your process or how you’re going about things.”
The result of Friday’s game notwithstanding, Daniels is the face of the Jayhawks’ turnaround. He brought KU to its first bowl game since 2008 with his electrifying play in 2022.
Even if more recent years haven’t gone as planned, Daniels doesn’t take his place in Jayhawks history for granted.
“There’s a lot of key players that I can name, maybe, 20, 20-plus players that have done so much for this program,” he said. “I think it’s about being able to continue the legacy they left here, which is being able to leave Kansas better than we found it.”
Daniels said It's hard to reflect on the journey when he’s still in the midst of it all. He plans to look back on all the good, and bad, after it’s all over.
But he admitted to having a favorite throw from his six years at KU.
“The first throw that would probably come to my head would be the touchdown to Luke Grimm against Duke,” Daniels said. “He ran a stop-and-go and I remember there being pressure from the interior. I had to slide off to the left a little bit and throw it off-platform and it was a touchdown.
“I just remember the offense was rolling. There were a few passes that game where I was like, ‘OK, bet.’”
As for what Daniels might remember about his seasons in Lawrence many years down the line?
“The first thing that is going to come to my head is ... Todd Reesing, I was so close,” Daniels said while laughing. “I was so close, Todd (to beating his all-time KU quarterbacking records). ...
“Being at Kansas has allowed me to connect with so many people from so many different parts of the world that I genuinely think that I’ll be able to have in my wedding one day — a whole bunch of people who I’m going to continue to talk to, have a great relationship with, when football and college is over.
“I’ll still be able to call these peoples’ phones and be able to have these conversations and be able to go over the memories that we’ve had in college.”
