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College Football

Adding Jayden Daniels confirms Brian Kelly has done a whale of a job with his first quarterback room

Connor O'Gara

By Connor O'Gara

Published:

I should probably stop assuming anything with Brian Kelly.

Let’s back up for a second and remember that we’re talking about someone on the other side of 60 years old who spent the past 34 years of his life in the Midwest. Usually, someone in that spot who announces he’s moving to the South is off to play shuffleboard in Florida.

Nobody assumed Kelly, the winningest coach in Notre Dame history with 113 Ws, was ready to ride into the sunset. But surely nobody would’ve assumed at this time last year that Kelly would now be entrenched as LSU’s next head coach with a new viral persona unlike any he had at any point in his 3-decade career.

So I probably shouldn’t have assumed that Kelly was done building his first quarterback room in Baton Rouge.

The addition of Arizona State quarterback Jayden Daniels was proof of that. Kelly casually signed one of the top transfer portal quarterbacks of this cycle to a room that wasn’t lacking depth to begin with.

It already had perennial quarterback-of-the-future Myles Brennan, who decided to come back to LSU for Year 6 after initially entering the transfer portal. We knew that it also had Garrett Nussmeier, who stepped into the backup role in his true freshman season as a former blue-chip recruit. And of course, Kelly signed No. 5 2022 quarterback Walker Howard, who co-starred in the dance seen ’round the college football world:

Put away your opinions of Kelly’s TikTok skills for a second a think about something more important.

The LSU quarterback room is deep, talented and promising. Usually, those aren’t words that describe a Year 1 coach’s quarterback room. Shoot, that wouldn’t even describe Jimbo Fisher’s Year 4 quarterback room at Texas A&M.

What Kelly has done to recruit and sign this quarterback room is nothing short of remarkable.

Daniels just joined a quarterback room that already looked more than capable of producing one of the league’s better offenses. Obviously, that was assuming Brennan was the guy and that he’d be healthy. Issues of Brennan’s weight/durability were questioned throughout his first 3 years at LSU, and when he finally reached his desired weight going into 2020, he played in 3 games over the course of the following 2 seasons.

Even though Kelly reportedly wasn’t seeking an additional quarterback, surely that had to have entered his thought process at some point after Brennan agreed to return to LSU. If the goal was to have Howard redshirt as a true freshman, slotting Nussmeier in as Brennan’s backup was putting a ton of faith in someone who was coming off a true freshman season that also saw him under the 4-game redshirt threshold.

Now, though? Kelly has options. Lots of options.

Brennan is entering Year 6. Daniels is entering Year 4. Will either be at LSU beyond 2022? Maybe, maybe not. That’s not Kelly’s issue. What is Kelly’s issue is making sure his team doesn’t waste arguably the best receivers room in the SEC with Kayshon Boutte, Jack Bech, Brian Thomas Jr., Malik Nabers and others.

Kelly didn’t do Brennan dirty by adding Daniels. That is, unless Kelly told Brennan he was the unquestioned starter if he chose to return for his junior season. There’s been no such report of that. And with Daniels, there haven’t been any reports that he was guaranteed the starting job, nor should he have been.

Daniels was dazzling as a true freshman in 2019. Trevor Lawrence and Sam Howell were the only returning Power 5 quarterbacks with more completions of 25 yards (via PFF). Daniels also only threw 2 interceptions and he showed major flashes as a runner with 355 yards on the ground, which was why there were such high expectations for his career.

Since that season? For one reason or another, it’s been rough, and not just because of his 10-10 TD-INT ratio this past season. His bizarre exit from Arizona State was well documented. Clearly, he needed a new home. Whether that was self-induced or not, Arizona State wasn’t exactly a model of stability. Five members of Herm Edwards’ staff lost their jobs as a result of an NCAA investigation into the program for violating the recruiting dead period rules during the pandemic in 2020.

Kelly clearly sold Daniels on getting that fresh start with a totally different vibe on that coaching staff, and with future NFL receivers to throw to. He’ll enter a quarterback competition that suddenly looks more interesting than ever with Brennan hoping to finally start and finish a season as LSU’s starter. It’s a risk worth taking for LSU beyond Brennan’s injury history.

As promising as Brennan was at times during those 3 games as LSU’s starter in 2020, what if that’s been skewing our impression of his potential for the past couple of years? Or on the flip side, as promising as Daniels was during that true freshman season in 2019, what if that’s been skewing our impression of his potential for the past couple of years?

Kelly can have a true battle now. He should get an entire offseason of 2 desperate quarterbacks who are willing to move mountains to get that opportunity. And the loser of that battle isn’t exactly in a position to bolt for another program, so barring injury, Kelly should enter the 2022 season with 2 guys who have proven they can handle the speed of a Power 5 defense.

Don’t take that for granted. Also take for granted that Kelly danced his way into keeping Howard committed to LSU. Yes, he was an in-state legacy. You can bet that Howard had no shortage of interest during that month and a half when LSU conducted its coaching search … including Kelly when he was still at Notre Dame.

Add it all up and it’s clear that Kelly is going to be aggressive about adding talent at the game’s most important position.

Now compare that to Kelly’s time at Notre Dame, where 2018 was the only instance in which he had multiple quarterbacks on the roster who were former top-100 recruits (it was an ineffective Brandon Wimbush and true freshman Phil Jurkovec). Kelly never signed quarterbacks who were top-100 recruits in consecutive classes, and he only landed 4 total during more than a decade in South Bend.

This is going to be new for Kelly. Then again, what isn’t?

The good news for him is that he has enough depth to stomach a potential surprise departure. No 2022 outlook of LSU would change if any quarterback on the roster left. For now, it appears to be portal-proof. That’s the goal for any staff, much less a new one competing in the most competitive division in the sport.

Kelly is now armed and ready in ways that nobody could’ve expected when he took over 3 months ago. No LSU fan would’ve bet their life on Brennan, Nussmeier or Howard being on the Tigers’ 2022 roster. At least they shouldn’t have. They certainly couldn’t have expected to have all 3 of those signal-callers while also adding one of the most decorated quarterbacks in the transfer portal.

There’s no doubt that Kelly improved LSU’s Year 1 floor by adding Daniels to the mix. Will he take off and fulfill that potential? Time will tell. One thing seems imminent, though.

Kelly will have some hungry Tigers battling for that job in Year 1.

Connor O'Gara

Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.

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