Trips home for junior quarterback Jayden Daniels haven’t been as successful as he would like. As a freshman, Daniels and the 24th-ranked Sun Devils traveled to the Rose Bowl only to find themselves down 42-10 and leaving with an injured quarterback. Last year, a 27-14 lead in Arizona State’s season-opening game against USC ended in dramatic defeat.
Two trips. Two failures. That simplifies things for Daniels as he leads Arizona State into Pasadena this Saturday.
“Only thing on my mind is coming back here with a win,” Daniels said of his third trip back to the Los Angeles area and second trip to the Rose Bowl. “Going out there 0-2 against UCLA, I want to get the chance to go back home and play in front of my family that doesn’t really get to see me. But coming back with the win is the main thing; it’s the main focus of this team, and the main focus for me is just doing whatever it takes to come back with a win.”
The San Bernardino, Calif., native has yet to complete a successful trip back to Southern California. Monday, head coach Herm Edwards said an ASU roster littered full of Los Angeles natives needs to keep its cool and stay on task in order to take control of the Pac-12 South division race. Over the last two seasons, Arizona State is a combined 0-4 against the L.A. schools. With USC already holding two conference losses, a head-to-head win for ASU or UCLA against each other could prove to be monumental in determining who wins the division.
In Arizona State’s opening two wins of this season, the Sun Devils overpowered their opponents with a strong rushing attack. Daniels addressed that dominance – and the lack of early passing production – during his Tuesday meeting with the media.
“The first game, we didn’t really have that many opportunities because we were overpowering (Southern Utah),” Daniels explained of the passing attack’s slow start in 2021. After throwing just four interceptions in his first 17 games as a starter, Daniels threw three in the first three games of 2021. “From the second game on, I just feel like we’ve been clicking. We’re keeping it simple with what the receivers like and what I like.”
Simplicity in the passing game has led to a noticeable increase in the completion percentage of the third-year Sun Devil starting quarterback. After completing 60.7 percent of passes as a freshman and regressing to 58.3 percent as a sophomore, Daniels has made a leap to 72.6 percent as a junior.
One of the easiest things to point to regarding Daniels’ increase in completions – he’s completed 20 more passes through the first four games of 2021 than he did in the truncated four-game schedule of 2020 – is the utilization of the screen game that offensive coordinator Zak Hill relies upon. Nowhere is that more apparent than in redshirt senior running back Rachaad White’s ability to lead the Sun Devils in receiving yards (187) and receptions (20) while also holding the team lead with 256 rushing yards.
“He plays a huge part,” Daniels told reporters of White, who scored a touchdown in seven of the eight games he’s played as a Sun Devil. “Those are the guys that you see on Sundays like the Christian McCaffrey’s – those type of guys. You can’t really game plan for those type of people. He’s such a patient runner, and out of the backfield, he can hurt you. Me and him are close, and we hang out all the time, so building that team chemistry means I have someone back there that I can trust.”
Trust is a huge word in the vernacular of Daniels. In any press conference, the ASU signal-caller will emphasize his growing trust with his receiving core because of how important it is to the odds of him – and the ASU offense – reaching its potential.
Growing trust with the pass-catchers helps set up Daniels to make throws as the one Edwards raved about Saturday night. The “Sunday throw,” Edwards talked about was a 24-yard completion to redshirt freshman Johnny Wilson, one of many in the clinic Daniels put on display Saturday against Colorado.
“It just comes with chemistry,” Daniels said. “You can see that we’re a tight-knit group. Just the whole offense hanging with each other outside of football; that just comes with trust and building that each and every day. We’re always hanging out, always laughing – just cracking jokes.
“As soon as you get comfortable with a person, you just start trusting them more.”
Following Saturday’s conference-opener, Edwards told reporters he thought Daniels’ 18 for 25 performance, in which he threw for 236 yards, no touchdowns, and no interceptions, was one of the best of his career. Hill shared a similar sentiment.
“I think Jayden is feeling more and more comfortable out there,” Hill said after wrapping up the 35-13 win over the Buffaloes. “I know our wide receivers are hungry, and they are doing a great job in practice. We just gotta do it week-in and week-out.”
Given the glaring weakness of the UCLA defense, Daniels could shoulder the burden of heavy passing production this Saturday in Pasadena. Out of 130 FBS programs, the Bruins pass defense ranks 126th, allowing 330.2 passing yards per game. In contrast, Chip Kelly’s squad has held opponents to just 64 yards per game on the ground, the fifth-best mark in the country.
The matchup provides a great sense of good-on-good with ASU’s rushing attack against UCLA’s run defense. Daniels and Hill enter the crucial Pac-12 South clash with a healthy receiving room and budding chemistry. On Tuesday, Utah transfer wide receiver Bryan Thompson returned to practice after suffering a hamstring injury in the win over UNLV.
When Daniels has been inaccurate, some of his throws have missed high. In each of the past two games, he’s missed an in-breaking route over the middle. Against Colorado, it was to Wilson, and against BYU, the throw was intended for redshirt sophomore Andre Johnson. The pass to Wilson fell harmlessly incomplete, but the ball intended for Johnson came to rest in the hands of a BYU defender for the first two-interception game of Daniels’ career.
“That’s just about being comfortable in the pocket sometimes,” Daniels admitted of the issue. “Sometimes I might feel like there’s a defender around me, just rushing it. It’s something we can fix; it’s not a big issue, just something that we’ve been working on. Just getting on the same page as the receivers as they run those types of routes.
“Hopefully, this week, when it comes up, we’ll be hitting on it.”
Different pieces for Arizona State and UCLA’s offense help contribute to offenses that are trying to do some of the same things; use motions, misdirection, and the run game to create play-action passing opportunities with versatile, mobile quarterbacks. Daniels says it sets up a potential chess match in Pasadena on Saturday with his skillset helping make life easier on ASU’s play-caller.
“Teams are going to come in with a game plan to stop my legs because I’m such a threat with my legs,” Daniels said. Through four games, the ASU quarterback trails White by just eight yards for the lead in rushing yards. “It makes it easier for coach Hill to call the game if I’m able to extend the play and not just take off but look downfield and have those big passing plays down the field when I escape the pocket.”
A trip to Los Angeles is different than one to Provo, but for ASU, the goal of taking down a ranked opponent in their second try of 2021 remains the same.
“BYU was more of a hostile crowd,” Daniels said. “UCLA is going to have some fans there, but it’s really just about getting locked in. In our first road game, I feel like people kind of got caught up with the antics of what was going on.
“It’s my job, and it’s the coaches’ job to get those guys locked in and focused on knowing what we came to accomplish.”
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