Football
102,321 fans inside Tiger Stadium watched Jayden Daniels pull off something college football had never seen before in 2023. Daniels threw for 372 yards and rushed for another 234 yards, dismantling the Florida Gators to become the first and only player in FBS history to cross 350 passing yards and 200 rushing yards in a single game. Death Valley was deafening that night. But in just 3 seasons, that LSU fans’ goodwill has vanished into thin air, as was evident in their season opener against Clemson on Saturday, September 5.
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The very same Baton Rouge crowd turned hostile against the 2023 Heisman winner the moment his face flashed across a stadium jumbotron. The fan outrage spilled outside the stadium as well, where a young fan was seen holding a sign that said, “Jayden, don’t sue me, I’m only seven years old.” Speaking on this situation, 2x Super Bowl champion RB LeSean McCoy explained how much a college QB gives for his university and how he expects LSU lads who played with Jayden Daniels to support him in this case.
“I want to challenge all the fans out there, especially the LSU fans: that was your quarterback. Have some respect for him. He’s a Heisman winner, and you don’t get a lot of those. So for all the fans booing, man, that’s kind of weak. He goes out there to be entertainment for y’all as the fans, and then when you boo him, it’s like, as a player, I’m like, ‘Damn, they don’t appreciate me.’
“When I [saw] this, it hurt my heart because as a player you do so much for the universities, for these franchises, to get that type of respect, and that’s terrible. And I want all the LSU dudes that played with him to speak up about it because that’s not okay. If this was San Antonio and Coach Pop, the fans were doing something, booing and all that, he got on the mic and spoke about it. So yes, I need all my LSU brothers to stand up for Jayden Daniels ’cause that’s not okay to be booing him like that,” LeSean McCoy stated on the Speakeasy Podcast.
The relationship between LSU and their former star QB and now Washington Commanders QB Jayden Daniels has completely deteriorated following Daniels objecting to LSU head coach Lane Kiffin reassigning jersey No. 5 to 5-star CB DJ Pickett. Since then, Jayden’s legal team has sent a cease-and-desist to LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry. The Daniels family has also publicly stated they felt profoundly disrespected by the university’s decision.
Daniels put together one of the best individual seasons in SEC history back in 2023. He racked up 3,812 passing yards, 40 passing TDs, and added 1,134 rushing yards with 10 rushing TDs. That historic stat line, with an NCAA-leading 208.0 pass efficiency rating and 317.7 yards/game, made him just the 3rd Heisman winner in LSU program history. He followed in the footsteps of Billy Cannon, or as McCoy called him, “some dude in the ’50s nobody knows his name,” and, of course, Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow.
Heismans are rare to come by, and so when they do, a fanbase shouldn’t fail to appreciate them, was McCoy’s underlying message.
However, co-host of the Speakeasy podcast, former NFL pro Emmanuel Acho pleaded with Jayden Daniels to apologise to LSU. From his perspective, “your alma mater is supposed to be your asylum, and right now your alma mater is your enemy.” He also called Baton Rouge Jayden’s “eternal asylum”, and the one place he should always go back to “and be shown love.”
Despite all this, former Tigers haven’t backed him; instead, two of them have publicly spoken against him.
3x First-Team All-Pro cornerback Patrick Peterson labeled Daniels’ legal moves “a little wack and lame.” Peterson called the situation childish, questioning why an NFL starting QB would fight over college numbers. Especially when one is coming off an injury, as Jayden Daniels is. Daniels missed the latter half of the 2025 season with a dislocated left elbow, but returned and has been fully cleared for Washington’s 2026 NFL season opening game vs. the Philadelphia Eagles.
Former LSU All-American RB Leonard Fournette also pushed back against Daniels’ stance on his #5 jersey. Fournette told Daniels directly to let the fight go, stressing that “No player is bigger than the LSU brand”. He pointed out how iconic numbers get passed to top recruits every cycle, giving his own example of taking Tyrann Mathieu and Patrick Peterson’s number 7, which wasn’t used for 2 years, but LSU gave it to Fournette, who was the right recruit and wanted it.
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