Why Jaden Daniels should win the Heisman Trophy

The Heisman Trophy race has been well underway as we head to the last regular season game of the college season, better known as rivalry week. There are three names for the Heisman Trophy candidate-Micheal Penix Jr., Bo Nix, and Jayden Daniels. The hype surrounding Nix and Penix is real. Micheal Penix leads all of college football in passing yards with 3,695 and his team (Washington) is also undefeated sitting at 11-0 and ranked fourth in the entire nation. Bo Nix is not too far behind sitting fourth in passing yards with 3,539. Nix and Oregon have one loss on the year and that was to Micheal Penix Jr. and the Washington Huskies. Oregon is currently ranked sixth overall with a 10-1 record. While these numbers are impressive it doesn’t compare to the stats Jaylen Daniels has put up. LSU is currently ranked 14th in the nation sitting at 8-3 with all three losses coming to teams that are currently in the top 10 or have been in the top 10 this season. In each of those losses, the LSU defense has given up 45 points or more. 

Now to the good stuff – the numbers. Jayden Daniels is third in the nation in passing yards with 3,577.  Daniels has thrown for the most touchdowns in college with 36 but Nix is right behind with 35 and that is followed by Penix who sits at 30 tds. Daniels also ranks first in QBR which is a performance measurement for quarterbacks. Daniels has led LSU to the most total yards per game in college with 562 yards per game as LSU sits in third in passing behind Nix’s Oregon team and Penix’s Huskies. Jayden Daniels has two receivers with over 1,000 yards receiving and also has the number-one receiver in yards with Malik Nabers who has 1,424. 

One thing that is very special about Daniels is his ability to extend plays with his feet. He is very fast and agile and reminds me of a college Lamar Jackson. Daniels had surpassed 1,000 rushing yards and currently ranks 22nd in the nation in rushing yards. He is the only quarterback inside the top 40 rushers this season. Daniels also has more passing yards than Bo Nix and more rushing yards than Oregan’s running back Bucky Irving. He has thrown just 118 fewer yards than Penix but has almost 200 more rushing yards than Washington’s running back. This guy does it all – he is LSU’s offense. Jayden Daniels has more 20+ yards plays than 131 FBS teams, yes I said teams. LSU leads the league in yards per play with 8.5 per play which is a whole yard more than Oregon and Washington who sit in second. In terms of actual points scored by Daniels, well, yes… leads all of college football in that category too. Don’t worry, I’m almost out of offensive categories to go over. Daniels has scored 278 points by either passing or running (25.2 average ppg) which is 34 more points than Bo Nix in second place.   It would take Bo Nix 1.5 games with his average to reach Daniels right now. The last category that Daniels leads the nation in is passing efficiency.  Daniels had a rating of 208 and Bo Nix is in second place with 191.

While Bo Nix and Micheal Penix have proven that they are great quarterbacks who should be able to transition into the NFL but Jayden Daniels has been playing “lights out” since September and deserves this award. After seeing all of Jayden Daniels’s stats do you agree he should win the Heisman?

The award will be presented on December 9th at 8 p.m. on ESPN.