Kansas football quarterback Jalon Daniels will continue to be unapologetically himself

You have to have seen it by now.

The suit. The shoes. The chain with an Apple Watch pendant playing his highlights that rests just below his own “JD6” logo.

Kansas football quarterback Jalon Daniels was already going to be one of the stars of Big 12 Conference media days earlier this month in Arlington, Texas. A media vote saw to that. He was the preseason Big 12 offensive player of the year.

Then Daniels and his unabashed personality came into AT&T Stadium dressed like a star. By day’s end, the junior didn’t just have his head coach and teammates talking. There wasn’t another outfit like it.

But this wasn’t an act of someone trying to assume a role. This was Daniels being who he is — an individual who exudes confidence and lives by it, because in his mind he can’t achieve what he sets out to accomplish without it. And, with a smile on his face, he’s going to keep on being himself.

“I feel like I’ve always been unapologetically myself, because I am what you get,” Daniels said. “I don’t try to be anybody different. Because at the end of the day, if I’m trying to be somebody that I’m not, then I don’t feel genuine to myself. And that means I’m not confident in myself.”

Junior running back Devin Neal said about Daniels: “He’s not changing for no one and that’s one of the things I respect most about him, and (senior safety) Kenny (Logan Jr.). They don’t change for no one.”

Daniels is one of the faces, if not the face, of Kansas head coach Lance Leipold’s turnaround in Lawrence. In 2021, Leipold’s first year at the helm, Daniels spearheaded an upset of Texas in Austin and burned his redshirt to keep playing and help the team build momentum. In 2022, although he missed time due to injury, Daniels and the Jayhawks reached their first bowl game as a program in more than a decade and captured the attention of the college football landscape.

In short, that means Daniels’ life has changed a lot in the past year. He can certainly tell whenever he’s walking around Lawrence, or walking around back home in California in the Los Angeles area. It went from people knowing he went to KU to play football, to people knowing that’s what he does.

In short, though, Daniels himself hasn’t changed. He can still remember what life was like just a handful of years ago when the spotlight wasn’t on him like this. He also has teammates who can keep him grounded, as well as his parents.

What’s happening now is a part of the progression that started when Daniels signed at Kansas. Yes, he admitted, it would have been easy to leave when the Jayhawks’ struggles were at their height — KU went 0-9 his first year in 2020 and 2-10 the following year. But, from his perspective, there was a trajectory worth following and he believed in the vision Leipold’s staff had.

“My life has never been the easy route,” Daniels said. “I didn’t make it to Kansas University based off of having 15 other Power Five offers. I was committed to Middle Tennessee State before I came to the University of Kansas, and I hold that dear to me because I know where I came from and I’m going to forever remember where I came from.”

This offseason, Daniels said he’s been working on not just being able to escape the pocket but being able to extend plays. He wants to be able to buy some time so he can find his targets down field. Think NFL quarterback Joe Burrow, he explained, especially when Burrow was a star in college at LSU.

More importantly, though, Daniels has been working with Kansas director of sports performance Matt Gildersleeve on becoming bulletproof when it comes to his ability to stay healthy. That’s not just a physical and nutritional commitment, such as staying away from sweets Daniels said, but a mental one as well. He wants to be able to show the world the Jayhawks are still making strides, and knows he can’t do that if he isn’t on the field.

Leipold even alluded to how talented of a dual-threat quarterback Daniels can be, as Leipold spoke at Big 12 media days. And Leipold, too, mentioned that they’re going to look to keep Daniels healthy so he can be that player, that leader on and off the field. Soon, with probably more eyes on them than the Jayhawks have had in a long time, they’ll have the opportunity to see what comes of their preparation.

“I’m very big on pressure is a privilege,” Daniels said. “If there’s pressure on me, that means that I’m expected to do something. And there’s times a couple years ago where I would have wished that I’ve had pressure to do that, so I’m really just looking at it as taking it day by day and being able to make sure that I’m bettering myself as a player.”

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Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas football's Jalon Daniels keeps being unapologetically himself