In the 24 hours after Jayden Daniels heard his name called and he walked on stage in Detroit when the Washington Commanders selected him with the No. 2 overall draft pick, the reality of his childhood dream is setting in more and more.

Daniels thought back to waking up on Friday and texting former LSU wide receiver teammates Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr., who were chosen No. 6 overall by the New York Giants and 23 overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars, respectively. He said it “kind of” set in the night of Round 1 kick-starting the 2024 NFL Draft last Thursday.

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“I was just sitting, laying in bed, and I was texting with Malik and Brian, man, and we were just like, ‘You know, we woke up as pros officially,’” Daniels said. “We’re all on our teams and we’re able to live out our childhood dreams. So it still hasn’t hit me yet but it’s starting to get there.”

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Daniels grew up in San Bernardino, California, where he helped lead Cajon High School on multiple deep postseason runs, breaking both school and state records, on the way to becoming a four-star recruit as part of the class of 2019.

He began his college career at Arizona State under head coach Herm Edwards, then transferred before the 2022 season to play for Brian Kelly and LSU. Daniels led the Tigers to a 10-4 record and Citrus Bowl victory his first year before winning the Heisman Trophy after throwing for 3,812 yards and 40 touchdowns to four interceptions as well as a 10-3 record.

Getting to the NFL was a dream Daniels said he’d had since he was a kid. In fact, he knew he wanted to get there when he was 7 years old.

“I got a blank piece of paper, wrote, ‘I’ll play in the NFL,’ and put it above my door so I’ve seen it every morning,” Daniels said. “The workouts with my dad, you know, when I didn’t want to work out, when I started doubting myself when I was younger, like, ‘Can I really do this, man?’ All the perseverance, I’ve been through the adversity in my life, led me to this point now.”

Daniels credited “the stability I was able to have at LSU” under Kelly and offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Joe Sloan and others as a reason for his improvement from his first season as Tigers starting quarterback to his second — which ultimately would be the one he won college football’s top award.

“Same coaching staffs, same coordinators, and you know, it’s just the camaraderie and the trust that me and my guys built this past offseason and being able to find ways to take my game to another level,” Daniels said. “I didn’t want to come back to college to do the same thing I did the year before, so I wanted to take my game to another level. And you know, shout out to LSU and the support staff that helped me out whether that’s the Oculus VR stuff that I was doing or even after practice, the equipment people, the equipment assistants, the students catching footballs for me while when I’m the last one on the field, so I appreciate all of them.”

Daniels is the only player in Football Bowl Subdivision history to pass for 12,000 yards and run for 3,000.

In Week 11 last season, Daniels became the first player in FBS history to throw for 350 yards and 200 yards in the same game when he did it in a 52-35 win over Florida. He said that game “catapulted me back to win the Heisman Trophy.”

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Daniels will now move on to professional football in Washington D.C., where he’ll be coached under a new regime led by Dan Quinn, who has coaching ties to both the NFL and college including a two-year stint at Florida as defensive coordinator from 2011-12.

There have been 12 quarterbacks to start at least one game for the Commanders since they moved on from Kirk Cousins following the 2017 season. Daniels aims to be the one to stick around and lead Washington into the future.

“God put me in this place for a reason,” Daniels said. “My life is already written out. He got a plan. I’m just following it. But that comes with the work at the end of the day. Nothing is given to me. It’s not a given I’m a starter Week 1. I got to go out, I got to earn it. I got to put in the work. I got to learn the playbook, earn the respect of my teammates and go out there and try to win football games.”

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According to Glen West of 247 Sports, the promotions took place on Tuesday. Sloan will “serve as the primary play caller but Hankton will also be actively engaged in how the offense is run.”

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Sloan joined LSU after Brian Kelly was named head coach prior to the 2022 season. He spent nine seasons at Louisiana Tech where the Bulldogs appeared in seven bowl games and won the Conference USA West twice.

Sloan also has past coaching stops at South Florida from 2010-11 and serving as an administrative assistant for East Carolina.

Hankton also joined the Tigers after Kelly arrived in Baton Rouge. He coached the likes of Kayshon Boutte and Malik Nabers, helping LSU reach its second-highest totals of 6,344 total yards and 3,770 passing yards in program history in 2022.

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Hankton coached for four years at Georgia as the pass game coordinator and wide receivers coach from 2019-22. There, Hankton coached receivers such as George Pickens and Mecole Hardman among others.

Hankton spent three seasons coaching wide receivers at Vanderbilt before Georgia. He’s also spent three seasons at Dartmouth and some time at Central Florida.

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Daniels joined former LSU halfback Billy Cannon in 1959 and quarterback Joe Burrow in 2019 as Heisman Trophy winners from the program.

READ: LSU’s Jayden Daniels wins Heisman Trophy

Daniels made sure to give thanks to those who came across his journey in life. He began his college football career at Arizona State in 2019, joining the Sun Devils as a four-star recruit according to Rivals.

Daniels navigated three seasons at Arizona State, compiling an 18-12 record while the Sun Devils went on to fire head coach Herm Edwards in the middle of the 2022 campaign — when Daniels had already arrived at LSU.

Daniels joined LSU head coach Brian Kelly in becoming part of the Tigers football program. Kelly took the reins as head coach, and Daniels was his quarterback.

Across two seasons at LSU, Daniels went 19-7 and compiled 6,725 passing yards, 57 touchdowns to seven interceptions, and he averaged 231.8 pass yards per game while in college.

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While standing on the Heisman stage in New York City on Saturday night, Daniels gave thanks to his family, the LSU coaching staff, members of Arizona State, former coaches and teammates, and his fellow Heisman finalists, Oregon’s Bo Nix, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. and Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr.

Here is Daniels’ full Heisman accepttance speech.

“Thank you,” Daniels said. “This is a dream come true. I want to first give thanks to God for all the glory. He’s my rock, my savior. He blessed me with the talents and ability to get here. All the special people here to develop these skills.

“To Bo, Mike and Marvin, you guys are amazing. I enjoy watching, but the competition is never over. I look forward to seeing you guys on Sundays. I would like to start to think with a few things, thank you’s. I learned from previous winners the first lesson of becoming a great quarterback, you got to thank your O-line first. Thank you guys for getting me here today in one piece. I know it wasn’t easy. I scramble around a lot but you know I love you guys. I have so many coaches to thank.

“My high school coach Nick Rogers. He is here. Thank you for believing in a 14-year-old freshman to start on varsity. I probably weighed 140 pounds. I appreciate you. Taylor Kelly. Thank you for helping me elevate my game, taking me to new heights and the next level. I want to thank Herm Edwards, Marvin Lewis and Antonio Pierce. Thank you for your leadership and welcoming me when I was at ASU and thank you for giving me the keys to the program. To coach Kelly, coach Frank, coach (Mike) Denbrock and coach (Joe) Sloan and the rest of the LSU football staff. Thank you for trusting in me to lead your team. I learned so much from you guys. You took a kid from the West Coast and brought me back down to the bayou. I’m forever thankful. I want to thank to every single LSU fan for having my back. I never seen fans pouring their hearts into a team like LSU. I really wish I could have brought you back another championship, but that was my plan but you know God has other plans for me.

“It’s so hard. I want to thank all my teammates from Arizona State to LSU. You’re my brothers. You work so hard every day inspiring me to be my best. The truth is I will truly miss all you guys. Having future NFL players on my team makes my job look easy. You know, my receivers always say this: they’re like Waffle House, they’re always open.I also want to acknowledge all the unsung heroes of this game. Trainers to the nutritionists, equipment managers, groundskeepers, janitors, you know, security, everybody. Basically everyone who works behind the scenes to make sure our sport is the greatest on earth. I know sometimes it’s a thankless job so I want to say thank you.

“Finally, I would like to turn to my family. Dad, you know you put a football in my hands when I was young. I know you raised me to be a corner but hopefully now you see me playing quarterback. It paid off. You taught me how to play, lead and be calm no matter the situation, and I know I wouldn’t be on this stage if it wasn’t for you, so thank you. I love you. My rock, my momma. You were so nervous when I was playing my first high school game that you couldn’t watch my first high school touchdown. You closed your eyes. But after that you never took your eyes off the field. You always had my best interests at heart from day one, and you showed me that tough love when I needed it. You instilled in me the hardworking mentality thatgot me here and you always told me keep my eyes on the prize. You encouraged me to always bet on myself because you always believed in me no matter what. I graduated in three years because that’s something that you pushed me to do, and here now I’m on this stage and I love you mom. Thank you.

“I want to shout out one more person Sherman Wilson. He’s in the stands somehwere. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me, bro. Pushing me no matter what. You might be annoying, but you know I love you dog. Being a college athlete and winning this award has been a dream come true. I want to dedicate this award to every boy and girl who has a dream. With faith and hard work you never know what’s possible.

“They said I was too skinny so I added weight. They said I relied on my legs a little bit too much so you know what? I went to work, completeed all those passes, had this season I had, so I thank everybody out there. And they said I was too quiet so I became more vocal. I stepped out of my comfort zone and now I’m here today. So what did I learn from all this? I learned how to block out the noise, that you can overcome any obstacle and just be humble, be Legendary and most importantly, be joyful about what you do. And when you get knocked down, get back up, keep smiling and never give up on your dreams. I want to end this special thank you to Greg Williams Jr. and his family. You gave me inspiration to continue on this journey of greatness and keep fighting. Thank you.”

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