LSU QUARTERBACK DANIELS IS AP PLAYER OF THE YEAR
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 Heisman Trophy finalist finished comfortably ahead of Washington quarterback Michael Penix, who was second with 15 first-place votes and 97 points.
Oregon QB Bo Nix was third, with Ohio State receiver Marvin Harrison fourth and Oklahoma State running back Ollie Gordon II fifth. Nix received the other first-place vote. USC quarterback Caleb Williams, the 2022 AP Player of the Year and last year’s Heisman winner, did not receive votes this season.
Daniels, Penix, Nix and Harrison are the finalists for the Heisman, which will be presented in New York on Saturday. The winner of the AP award has differed from the Heisman winner just twice in the past two decades.
The last LSU player to be named AP Player of the Year was Joe Burrow in 2019, when he also won the Heisman.
Daniels, a San Bernardino, native who transferred to LSU from Arizona State in 2022, has led the nation in total offense this season with 4,946 yards in 12 games (412.2 yards per game). He has passed for 3,812 yards, which ranks third nationally. His 40 TDs passing ties for first nationally with Nix, who has played in one more game than Daniels.
The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Daniels rushed for 1,134 yards and 10 TDs. His 50 touchdowns rushing and passing combined has helped him be responsible for a nation-high 302 points.
As a youth athlete, his nickname was “Smooth,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press, “because it looks like I’m not running fast or running hard … but I’m moving faster than what most people think.”
Coaching exodus
Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith announced his first wave of additions to the coaching and support staff on Thursday, and each person has ties to him and the Beavers.
Smith’s first staff at Michigan State will include offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren, who will also coach quarterbacks, and assistant head coach Keith Bhonapha, who will also lead the running backs.
Nine other former Beavers assistants are joining Smith.
Notable
Bronco Mendenhall signed a five-year contract worth at least $6 million to take over
New Mexico’s football team, making him the highest-paid coach in program history.
It includes an annual base salary of $1.2 million and numerous incentives depending on the team’s performance on and off the field and ticket sales.
Duke hired Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz as its head coach, according to an AP source.
The move marks a return for Diaz to the Atlantic Coast Conference as well as North Carolina. In addition to three seasons as Miami’s coach, he spent six seasons on Chuck Amato’s staff from 2000-05 at North Carolina State.
Florida running back Trevor Etienne, who led the Gators with nine touchdowns and emerged as one of the team’s most dynamic playmakers, entered the transfer portal. He is the younger brother of former Clemson star and Jacksonville Jaguars RB Travis Etienne.
• Mike Aresco is retiring as commissioner of the American Athletic Conference at the end of the current academic year on May 31, after serving during a period of constant change in college athletics while championing for his and other leagues outside the Power Five.
Kansas hired former Baylor and BYU assistant Jeff Grimes to be its assistant head coach and offensive coordinator.
No. 24 James Madison (11-1) hired Bob Chesney away from Holy Cross to take over as coach after Curt Cignetti left for the same role at Indiana.