Jayden Daniels breezes to Heisman win: LSU quarterback becomes third player in school history to win award, followed by Penix, Nix and Harrison

LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday in New York City over Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., Oregon’s Bo Nix and Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr. Daniels is the third Heisman recipient from LSU. 

This year’s finalists features three quarterbacks in Daniels, Penix and Nix who transferred to their respective schools and found success. 

Daniels left Arizona State and headed to LSU in 2022 while the Sun Devils were in the midst of an NCAA investigation. In his fifth and final year of eligibility, Daniels led the Tigers to a 9-3 record while punching some of his best numbers. Daniels has 3,812 yards for 40 touchdowns, while completing 72.2 per cent of his passes. 

Penix has been with Washington for the past two seasons after four years in Indiana. This season, Penix recorded at least 300 passing yards in each of No 2 ranked Washington’s first six games. Penix also threw at least four touchdowns in four of those six games. The Huskies’ facilitator paid tribute to his squad by embedding his teammates’ names on his suit on Saturday. 

Nix broke a family tradition when he left Auburn after three years to finish his collegiate career in Oregon. In his second season with the Ducks, Nix became the second best quarterback in the NCAA in passer rating at 186.2 per cent and passing yards with 4,145. 

Daniels won the award over fellow finalists Michael Penix Jr., Bo Nix and Marvin Harrison Jr. 

Harrison is the only non-quarterback and non-transfer finalist for the Heisman. The Ohio State wide receiver finished ninth in receiving yards with 1,221 and is tied for second in touchdowns with 14. 

Daniels comfortably won the award with 503 first place votes. Penix, Nix, and Harrison each finished with 292, 51 and 20 votes, respectively. Daniels also finished with 2,029 total points as Penix trailed with 1,701. 

Daniels played three seasons at Arizona State and nobody anywhere was viewing him as a potential Heisman Trophy finalist.

But he transferred to LSU following the 2021 season and a sudden transformation took place. The highly athletic Daniels became a dual-threat force. The exclamation point was Daniels’ huge 2023 performance, which pushed him into the favorite’s role to win the Heisman.

At LSU, Daniels is enjoying a monster 2023 season. He leads the nation in total offense (4,946) and accounted for 50 touchdowns. He has passed for 3,812 yards, 40 touchdowns and four interceptions and rushed for 1,134 yards and 10 scores.

His signature game was in a 52-35 win over Florida on Nov. 11 when he accounted for 606 yards (372 passing, 234 rushing) and became the first player in FBS history to pass for 350 and rush for 200 in the same game.

Daniels the third Tigers’ player to win the Heisman, following running back Billy Cannon in 1959 and quarterback Joe Burrow in 2019.