LAWRENCE, Kan. — Jalon Daniels was about to celebrate the first touchdown in the rebuilt stadium at Kansas when the pyrotechnics went off.
Forgive him for being a little startled.
The Jayhawks never had such trappings when they played in crumbling Memorial Stadium, a century-plus-old concrete structure perched on the northern edge of campus. Heck, they didn’t even have a permanent tunnel to run out of on game day, instead entering the field through an inflatable alleyway that looked like part of a children’s bounce house.
“The fireworks after scoring touchdowns, I mean, that’s something that I was kind of like, ‘Yeah, I wish that we were able to do that earlier in my career,’” Daniels said later, after the Jayhawks beat Fresno State 31-7 in their opener.
Earlier in his career was a long time ago.
If there is anybody who can vouch for how far Kansas football has come over the past few years, it’s the sixth-year quarterback running the show. Daniels was recruited by then-coach Les Miles and part of a team in 2020 that didn’t win a single game during a freshman season shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic. And when Miles was fired, and Lance Leipold hired away from Buffalo to begin a vast rebuilding project, Daniels was expected to help lead the efforts.
Yet injuries derailed a career that at one point had Daniels on a short list of Heisman Trophy contenders. He appeared in just 18 games over a three-year stretch in which once-downtrodden Kansas managed to reach a pair of bowl games.
Daniels finally played a full season last year, throwing for 2,454 yards and 14 touchdowns. But the results were not what anyone expected. Forced to play their home games in the Kansas City metro area while their on-campus home was being rebuilt, the Jayhawks proceeded to…
Source link : https://www.nbcsports.com/college-football/news/fireworks-and-touchdowns-how-jalon-daniels-and-kansas-celebrated-their-new-stadium
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Publish date : 2025-08-26 17:47:00
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