Report: Jayden Daniels’ mom aided ASU in alleged recruiting violations
Jun 24, 2021, 2:23 PM
A new report has shed more light on the Arizona State Sun Devils’ alleged recruiting violations during the COVID-19 dead period.
Yahoo! Sports’ Pete Thamel unearthed more details regarding ASU’s violations after obtaining the dossier of documents sent to the NCAA enforcement department and ASU compliance office.
The letter provides, sometimes in meticulous detail, allegations of a series of potential NCAA violations. It specifically names 10 Arizona State “individual staff members to investigate” and lists 13 “illegal recruiting prospects” who visited campus during the COVID-19 dead period.
The dossier includes specific allegations with documented receipts, screenshots and pictures taken with recruits in ASU’s facilities.
One such allegation includes starting quarterback Jayden Daniels’ mom Regina Jackson helping arrange and pay for recruits’ and their plane tickets.
That includes screenshots of emails that show Regina Jackson, the mother of star quarterback Jayden Daniels, allegedly helping book more than $1,100 in flights for recruits and the adults accompanying them on a recruiting trip from Florida, according to the documents.
Jackson has since denied the allegations, telling Yahoo! Sports the Google email address associated with the account that was purchasing the plane tickets had been compromised. She added she canceled the charges after it was discovered she had been charged for the airfare.
Thamel added that while Jackson was named in the allegations, Daniels is not implicated in any wrongdoing.
The allegations of arranging and paying for recruits’ flights also pertained to ASU assistant coaches Chris Hawkins, Prentice Gill and Adam Breneman.
Both Hawkins and Gill told Yahoo! Sports they did not purchase plane tickets or give financial benefits to recruits, while Breneman declined to comment.
Last Wednesday, The Athletic’s Doug Haller first reported the program was under an NCAA investigation over alleged recruiting violations during the COVID-19 dead period.
ASU confirmed to Arizona Sports that the NCAA was conducting an investigation regarding allegations related to the football program but did not provide further comment due to NCAA bylaws.
Haller added it’s unclear how much head coach Herm Edwards is involved in the investigation, being that he relies heavily on associate head coach and defensive coordinator Antonio Pierce for recruiting efforts.
ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura said at the time that while the scope of the investigation will likely go back several months, “multiple Pac-12 sources have indicated they are aware of minor recruiting violations ASU has allegedly committed in just the last week.”
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