No player from the University of Kansas has ever won the Heisman Trophy (or come close), and starting Jayhawks quarterback Jalon Daniels'wasn't even a betting option to open the season at BetMGM. Kansas is arguably the most unlikely unbeaten team in the nation and Daniels is now +3000 to win college football's biggest individual award. One bettor at BetMGM dropped $25,000 on Daniels when he was +3300 for a potential return of $825,000.
Daniels, a 6-foot, 215-pound junior from California, was 19-for-23 for 324 yards and four touchdowns while rushing for 83 yards and another score in Saturday's 35-27 win over Duke in front of a very rare (non-basketball) sellout in Lawrence as the Jayhawks improved to 4-0 for the first time since 2009. Daniels became the first KU quarterback to throw three touchdown passes with 250 yards of total offense in any half since Todd Reesing in the 2008 Insight Bowl against Minnesota.
Daniels was the first Kansas quarterback with four TD passes since Carter Stanley in 2019 vs. Texas. Daniels' 82.6 completion percentage was the sixth-highest single-game rate in school history (minimum of 10 attempts) and the highest since Reesing in 2008. Finally, Daniels became the first player in school history to record multiple games in which he was responsible for five touchdowns. Kansas has already scored 27 touchdowns after scoring just 32 in 12 games last season. Daniels has accounted for 15 of them (11 passing, four rushing). Incredibly, he even punted once vs. Duke for 33 yards, pinning the Blue Devi ls at their own 7.
Only three players in Kansas history have even gotten a single Heisman vote: Quarterbacks John Hadl, Bobby Douglass and David Jaynes. Reesing holds most school records but never got a vote.