Kansas will rely heavily on star quarterback Jalon Daniels, the preseason Big 12 Conference offensive player of the year, this season as it expects even greater success from its high-octane air attack.
Daniels missed four games in 2022 due to a shoulder injury as KU came back down to earth following a 5-0 start. Now, as he looks to tackle his first full season as the Jayhawks’ starter — he has played 22 games in three years at KU so far — he is being hampered by another ailment, which head coach Lance Leipold has referred to as “back tightness.”
With the Jayhawks’ season opener against Missouri State a week away, here’s how word out of KU on that injury has evolved over the course of August.
The timeline
Aug. 1: Daniels participated as normal in practice, and he continued to do so throughout the opening stretch of fall camp. On the opening day of camp, he spoke to reporters and expressed his enthusiasm for the training regimen and season ahead.
“It was a lot of energy around the field,” he said. “You can tell that the attention to detail was there, and we know what we have to do to be able to take that next step.”
Aug. 7: Daniels did not participate during the 30-minute portion of practice made available to media.
“He was there; he just didn’t take any reps today, and he’s got some back tightness right now,” Leipold said. “So just working through that. He’s there; he’s doing some stuff.”
Leipold added that Daniels had thrown some the previous day and that he was one of a number of players who were experiencing minor ailments.
“If I’m saying it in a week or so from now,” Leipold said, “then we can probably dive in deeper.”
Aug. 8: Daniels was back taking part in practice during the open portion.
Aug. 11-12: On these, the next two days reporters were invited to practice after Aug. 8, Daniels was again absent during the period reporters observed. All Leipold said about Daniels’ condition on Aug. 12 was that he was “still progressing.”
Aug. 16: On KU’s media day, Leipold said of Daniels’ back tightness that “he’s still going through.”
“He hasn’t really taken — he’s not practicing at the time, doing stuff with the trainers, progressing in a positive way that hopefully here by (the) weekend or early next week, we expect him to be back,” Leipold added.
Daniels spoke to reporters for the first time since the opening day of camp and told the Journal-World that his back was “doing good.”
“Can’t complain too much, just staying in communication with the trainers and waiting for them to give me the green light,” he said.
Aug. 23: Leipold said that Daniels was “doing more and more each day” but didn’t want to speak in depth on injuries, writ large, until next week — the week of the season opener.
Other notes on Daniels
Asked how he ensures Daniels continues to progress while sitting out, offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki said on Aug. 16, “You manufacture and make sure they understand the mental reps that are necessary.” The KU offensive coaching staff, when it installs a play, makes cut-ups of other teams running the play that it gives its players to watch, Kotelnicki added, and those can serve as a way of keeping Daniels engaged.
That’s part of a broader film-study emphasis for Daniels that quarterbacks coach Jim Zebrowski outlined the following day.
“It was good for the summertime, him knowing that he wanted to work on defensive recognition, getting that stuff, keep working on protection and blitz-type stuff,” Zebrowski said, “… and then also going back and showing all the mistakes. It’s kind of neat with all the tape you have now to break down every play.”
Zebrowski added that Daniels is also moving closer toward what Kotelnicki calls “understanding the why,” i.e., why the Jayhawks run a certain type of play in a certain scenario.
Chance Parker/Journal-World photo
