LSU’s Brennan departs, former ASU QB Daniels reportedly set to start

Former Arizona State quarterback Jayden Daniels will be the starter for Louisiana State after senior quarterback Myles Brennan said he’s stepping away from football, per WWL’s Kristian Garic.

Daniels transferred to LSU in March, where he has been battling with three other signal callers for the starting job. Redshirt freshman Garrett Nussmeier and five-star freshman Walker Howard joined Brennan and Daniels in the competition to become new head coach Brian Kelly’s first starter at QB.

The 23-year-old Brennan, who announced his decision on Monday, spent his first three years at LSU as a backup. He was named the starter in 2020, only to have that season cut short by an abdominal injury after three starts in which he passed for 1,112 yards and 11 touchdowns. Brennan then missed all of last season because of a non-football arm injury that occurred during a fishing outing at the end of August camp.

Brennan appeared in 20 career games for LSU, passing for 1,712 yards and 13 touchdowns. He appeared in eight games as Joe Burrow’s backup during the Tigers’ 2019 national championship season, when they went 15-0 — the winningest campaign in the 128-year history of the program. He graduated from LSU with a degree in sports administration in May 2021.

The senior Daniels has two years of eligibility left and is one of the many outward transfers ASU needed 43 new players for amid the NCAA’s investigation into the program and a period that saw five different coaches depart as well.

Daniels started as a true freshman for Herm Edwards’ ASU program and was terrific, with 17 touchdowns to just two interceptions for 2,943 passing yards, plus an additional 355 rushing yards and three more touchdowns. After four starts in the pandemic-affected 2020 season, Daniels regressed as a junior with an even touchdown-to-interception ratio of 10 apiece while completing 65.4% of his passes for 2,381 yards. He was much more dynamic as a runner, though, where his yards per attempt jumped from 2.8 as a freshman to 5.1 for 710 yards and six scores.

The purple and gold shoes are big ones for Daniels to step into for an LSU program that has won four national championships and 12 conference titles in the SEC.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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