Daniels, the Heisman Trophy finalist, finished comfortably ahead of Washington quarterback Michael Penix, who came in second place.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels is The Associated Press college football player of the year, the school’s second winner in the past five seasons.
Daniels received 35 of the 51 first-place votes and 130 total points from AP Top 25 poll voters. The
“It’s just all instincts,” Daniels said. “It’s not something that I think about pre-snap.”
His approach comes with risk and puts a premium on toughness.
A big and arguably late hit at Missouri briefly forced Daniels out of that game with a deep bruise in his ribs. He returned to lead LSU to a comeback victory, highlighted by his 35-yard scoring run. The rib injury bothered him for two more games.
“My pain tolerance is high,” Daniels said. “I was able to go out there and deal with it.”
LSU (9-3) was knocked out of contention for an SEC title when it lost to Alabama, a game in which Daniels spent most of the fourth quarter on the sideline with concussion symptoms after a penalized hit by linebacker Dallas Turner. Until that point, Alabama’s defense had struggled to contain Daniels.
“That still burns me,” Daniels said. “Obviously, we lost to a very good team, but I felt like it would have been a whole different story if I was in there.”
Daniels said it’s important to him to credit his team’s role in any individual accolades he receives, from the offensive line to the running backs and his pass-catchers.
“Without them, I wouldn’t be in a position like this where I was receiving any type of award,” Daniels said. “That’s my thing, is to make sure they feel a part of it.”
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