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Big 12 Media Days: How Lance Leipold Expects Kansas QB Jalon Daniels to Continue to Improve in 2023

Across a Big 12 landscape filled with returning quarterback talent, Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels was voted the best in the conference on the Preseason All-Big 12 Team.

Ryan Chapman

John E. Hoover / AllSooners
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ARLINGTON — Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels is the cream of the Big 12 crop.

At least according to the All-Big 12 Preseason Team.

Daniels wowed for the Jayhawks in 2022, completing 66.1 percent of his passes for 2,014 yards while also tossing 18 touchdowns and only four interceptions in nine games of action.

A dual-threat, he also totaled 425 rushing yards and seven addition scores on the ground, changing the face of the Jayhawk offense.

Before his injury against the TCU Horned Frogs, on Oct. 8, Daniels was even garnering attention as an outside Heisman Trophy candidate.

Daniels’ track record is deserving of his placement in the preseason polls, even in a league that returns starting quarterbacks in Texas’ Quinn Ewers, Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel, Texas Tech’s Tyler Shough and Kansas State’s breakout star from the back half of last season, Will Howard.

Kansas coach Lance Leipold hopes to better keep Daniels healthy and on his feet in 2023, but he also is excited to see the jump Daniels can take on the field.

“I think one thing that we sometimes forget about Jalon in everything he brings to our program is he’s an Academic All-American,” Leipold said at Big 12 Media Days on Wednesday. “And what we put on his plate and what we ask him to do, whether it be just things in our offense to retaining information… I think he does an outstanding job.”

The Jayhawks went 5-4 in the games Daniels starting — including the loss to TCU when the Horned Frogs knocked him out of the game after just 10 passing attempts.

To build on 2022’s success, Leipold knows Daniels will have to continue to improve as he is the leader and heartbeat of Kansas’ football resurgence.

“Everybody’s had a chance to see what he can do when he’s healthy,” Leipold said. “… I think the other thing is his leadership abilities, his charisma. He’s a guy that doesn’t get too high or too low.

“… He’s a special man.”

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Ryan Chapman
RYAN CHAPMAN

Ryan is deputy editor at AllSooners and covers a number of sports in and around Norman and Oklahoma City. Working both as a journalist and a sports talk radio host, Ryan has covered the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the United States Men’s National Soccer Team, the Oklahoma City Energy and more. Since 2019, Ryan has simultaneously pursued a career as both a writer and a sports talk radio host, working for the Flagship for Oklahoma sports, 107.7 The Franchise, as well as AllSooners.com. Ryan serves as a contributor to The Franchise’s website, TheFranchiseOK.com, which was recognized as having the “Best Website” in 2022 by the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters. Ryan holds an associate’s degree in Journalism from Oklahoma City Community College in Oklahoma City, OK. 

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