LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels won the 2023 Heisman Trophy. Daniels, who totaled 50 touchdowns and nearly 5,000 total yards during an outstanding senior season, was announced as the recipient of the award Saturday night. He won college football’s highest individual honor, ahead of Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr., Oregon quarterback Bo Nix and Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. did.
Daniels is the second LSU quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy in the past five years, as Joe Burrow won the award after a prolific 2019 season. Daniels joined Burrow as the program’s third Heisman winner, joining running back Billy Cannon, who won the award in 1959.
The 328-point difference between Daniels and Penix was the narrowest since 2018, when Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray defeated Tua Tagovailoa by 296 points.
The Heisman victory capped off a historically fulfilling final season of college football for Daniels, who transferred to LSU in 2022 after spending three seasons at Arizona State University. He emerged as one of the SEC’s best quarterbacks last season and took his game to a new height this year, leading the Tigers to a 9-3 record.
Daniels passed for 3,812 total yards, 40 touchdowns, and just four interceptions, and added 1,134 yards and 10 touchdowns as a rusher. He and Johnny Manziel are the only players in SEC history to throw for 3,500 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in a season.
There’s a lot of debate about what constituted Daniels’ “Heisman moment,” but two games stood out as the basis for the award. On November 11, he led LSU to a 52–35 victory over Florida, becoming the only player in FBS history to pass for 350 yards and rush for 200 yards in a single game. Daniels totaled 606 yards in the contest, setting a new SEC single-game record. In a win over Georgia State the following week, he tied a school record with eight total touchdowns.
Daniels’ 317.7 passing yards per game is just behind fellow finalists Penix (324.5 yards) and Nix (318.8 yards), but his 208.0 passing efficiency mark ranks No. 1 in the nation entering bowl season by a landslide. became. Daniels’ running ability was also no match for Penix or Nix. Although LSU did not advance to the SEC Championship Game, Daniels was still All-American in total yards (4,946 yards), more than 500 ahead of Nix (4,373 yards) and Penix (4,200 yards), who both played in the Pac-12 Championship Game. Finished the season at the top. . This speaks to Daniels’ effectiveness as a runner throughout the season.
2023 Heisman Trophy Voting
- Jayden Daniels, QB, LSU: 2,029 points (503 first-place votes)
- Michael Penix Jr., QB, Washington: 1,701 points (292 first-place votes)
- Bo Nix, QB, Oregon State: 885 points (51 first-place votes)
- Marvin Harrison Jr., WR, Ohio State: 352 points (20 first-place votes)
- Jordan Travis, QB, Florida State: 85 points (8 first-place votes)
- Jalen Milroe, QB, Alabama: 73 points (4 first-place votes)
- Ollie Gordon II, RB, Oklahoma State: 31 points (1 first-place vote)
- Cody Schrader, RB, Missouri: 29 points (1 first-place vote)
- Blake Collum, RB, Michigan State: 28 points (3 first-place votes)
- JJ McClashy, QB, Michigan State: 21 points (1 first-place vote)
An equally overwhelming winner for LSU.
Saturday night’s win further solidifies LSU as a destination for a top-tier quarterback after Burrow set a historic tone following Daniels in 2019. Both players transferred to LSU after spending three seasons at different Power Five schools and made big strides in their second and final seasons starting with the Tigers.
Burrow set an FBS record with 60 touchdown passes in 2019 and led LSU to a 15-0 record and the College Football Playoff National Championship. His passer efficiency rating of 202.0 set an FBS record at the time, but it was broken in subsequent seasons by Alabama’s Mac Jones and Coastal Carolina’s Grayson McCall. Now, Daniels is on the line to set a single-season record for passing efficiency as he awaits a decision on whether to play in the ReliaQuest Bowl against Wisconsin on Jan. 1.
Burrow and Daniels had very different styles, played for different coaches, and did not experience comparable levels of team success. But there were clear similarities in their incredible levels of statistical production leading up to the Heisman ceremony. At the time of the award in 2019, Burrow had 51 total touchdowns and 5,004 total yards. Daniels, who participated in Saturday night’s ceremony, had 4,946 yards and 50 touchdowns despite playing in one less game.
quarterback award
For three years from 1997 to 1999, University of Michigan defensive back Charles Woodson, University of Texas running back Ricky Williams, and University of Wisconsin running back Ron Dayne won the Strong Arm Trophy; Three people won the Heisman Trophy. However, the award has been dominated by QBs since the beginning of the 21st century, and Daniels became the 20th QB to win the Heisman Trophy in the 2000s and the sixth in the past seven years.
Still, the past two seasons have dispelled the notion that the Heisman is simply a “team award” given to the best first-team player. Penix is the only one of the four finalists to be in the College Football Playoff, and Daniels’ win marks a year in which USC quarterback Caleb Williams also won the Heisman without playing in the CFP. This was obtained later.