For the first time since Jalon Daniels was injured during the season he talked about his injury and status heading into the 2024 season.
Daniels was a guest on Pucker Up hosted by Joely Live and spoke about his injury and whether he thought about entering the transfer portal.
“I never thought about hitting the transfer portal,” Daniels said.
He said his injury started in fall camp, then cleared up but resurfaced the day of the Texas game.
“Before the Texas game it was kind of crazy for me because that's the day that everything started to happen,” he recalled. “I probably felt the best that I ever felt, that Texas week. I had been trying to work back from a back injury in fall camp. I got hurt after the first week of fall camp.”
Daniels said the injury started during fall camp after a lot of repetitive action.
“I guess my back just never really got the chance to warm up like it wanted to,” he said. “So, I kind of had the feeling that I wasn't able to really do too much without trying to hurt myself more. I told the trainers, and the trainers finally sat me out for fall camp. I ended up missing the first game, and that was kind of saddening to me because I thought I'd be back by then.”
Daniels would return for the Illinois game and lead the Jayhawks to a win. He admitted he still wasn’t 100 percent, but it was good enough to play. He followed with starts against Nevada and BYU. Then a road visit to Texas.
Going back to the trip to Austin and the day of the game is when the injury came back.
“The first time I felt something was the day of the Texas game,” Daniels said. “In the morning, I forgot what we were doing, but I ended up telling the trainers, like, something's not right. Something's not right at all. We got to the stadium and finally was able to start warming up and everything. I did a few throws, and I'm just like, nah, something's off.”
After trying to throw during pregame Daniels went straight to the locker room, where the trainers looked at him.
“I went inside the locker room and all I felt was pain,” Daniels said. “It felt like something was stabbing me. Felt like something was going down my entire leg. And it's the first time that I ever felt that type of anything in my life.”
Daniels attempted to return for the Oklahoma game. He was jogging and felt better but the pain returned a few days before the game. He did not play the rest of the season and he heard the comments that were coming from the fan base.
“Never really had much hate unless it's from opposing teams,” Daniels said. “But for the first time in my time being a Jayhawk, I've seen people turn on me. It was kind of crazy because I'm like, bro, I'm actually hurt.”
They traced the pain to the injury that started in fall camp. He said the pain was so bad there were times he could not get out of bed. Since then, he has taken time to rest and try to get the injury under control. Daniels said he plans to play in 2024 and is already on the road back.
“We are finally getting back to throwing the football again, finally getting back to jogging, finally getting back to running, conditioning, everything like that,” Daniels said. “But for the first three months of my injury, I couldn't drive. I couldn't get in and out of my car. My mom had to fly out, my cousin flew out, my stepdad flew out during the season. I wasn't even able to play for real. They were really just coming out to help me. Honestly, it was kind of one of the craziest times.”