(Photo: Brady Klain/WCSN)
Control seemed to be slipping away. Third-and-16. Four minutes and five seconds remaining in a game that Arizona State (6-5, 3-5 Pac-12) led at one point 24-7.
With a 24-21 lead, freshman quarterback Jayden Daniels had the ball in his hands. The Sun Devil signal-caller had just been sacked on the previous down, the Ducks having perfectly covered a play-action pass.
But a play later, with the game on the line, the 18-year-old added to his quickly-growing legacy. On a sure-to-be passing down, Oregon allowed Daniels to find senior wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk streaking down the sideline for an 81-yard touchdown, giving the Sun Devils a 31-21 lead.
“I talked to him the series before he went out there, and I was like ‘hey man, it’s real simple now,’” Edwards said. “If you make three first downs in this series of five minutes, the game is over. I said, ‘but you can throw a touchdown, too, if you want.’”
“There’s some nuts on the kid to go out there and throw some of the balls he had,” senior center Cohl Cabral said Wednesday.
Upon completion, Daniels motioned with his finger toward his veins, as if to signal the moment wasn’t too big for him in just his 10th career start. He returned to the bench with a wide smile, the 408 yards passing and three touchdowns enough to earn Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week honors.
“He’s just a different kid, he’s really grounded,” offensive coordinator Rob Likens said Tuesday. “I don’t worry about him being overconfident. I think (big games) give him more confidence, and I think he gets in even a better mindset.
“As you could tell, he was laughing in the game, and he was just smiling and that’s just who he is. The moment is never too big for him.”
Since returning from a knee injury which sidelined the freshman during the Devils’ 31-26 loss to USC, Daniels has shown an increased willingness to throw deep – completing 46 of his last 68 passes for 742 yards, six touchdowns, and zero interceptions. In doing so, he has given Aiyuk and junior wide receiver Frank Darby more opportunities to make big plays.
When Daniels missed the USC game, fellow freshman Joey Yellen made it a point to throw the ball deep, connecting with Darby on a 61-yard touchdown in the second quarter. With the ability to sit on the sidelines and learn, Likens said missing a game may have helped Daniels development.
“When you have an opportunity to sit on the sideline and watch another player play, Jayden has never really experienced that in his whole career,” Likens said after defeating the Ducks. “He got a chance to see Joey just let it fly, and he saw the guys catch up to it and I think he learned from it.”
Now, with a developed trust, Daniels is unlocking the deep-ball consistently for ASU. His 57-yard touchdown to Darby in the first quarter Saturday night passed Rudy Carpenter for the ASU freshman passing record, set in 2005.
“From fall camp until now, you can just see the comfort level and the trust in the room for me and them,” Daniels said following the win over Oregon. “I trust those guys to go make those plays.”
While Darby started the year slow – scoring just one touchdown in the teams’ first seven games – he has blossomed over the course of the last four weeks, scoring seven touchdowns.
“Jayden just had to get to the point where he understood who Frank is,” said Likens, whose offense has accounted for 17 passing plays of over 15 yards in the past two weeks. “You can talk and talk and talk, but until he does it – you can see the last three games he’s like ‘where’s Frank?’ He already knows about Brandon, but now he’s got Frank.
“Jayden is starting to realize when I can let that ball go. He doesn’t necessarily have to be open, he’s just gotta throw it up.”
Saturday night was a special night for the Sun Devil program with defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales going as far Wednesday as to say Daniels was a “generational quarterback.”
“That whole ‘Ice in the veins’ thing,” Gonzales said. “I’ve never been around somebody that calm, that collected. His favorite player is Deshaun Watson. He’s got a long way to go to be that, but he has a lot of those characteristics and Deshaun Watson changed Clemson’s program.”
With bowl-eligibility clinched and a visit from Arizona coming this Saturday at 8 p.m., the Sun Devils will continue to attempt to grab chunk plays through the air. Against a defense which has allowed 36.8 points and 306 passing yards per game this season, Daniels and company could have another special night in Tempe.
