'He's got a different aura about him'

You’ll probably still see some dancing, plenty of flashes of his signature smile and visions of a quarterback who genuinely loves playing the game of football.

There just might not be quite as much of it this season.

That was the message from KU strength coach Matt Gildersleeve about quarterback Jalon Daniels, who, a few minutes later, confirmed as much himself.

It’s not that he’s planning to change who he is for his sixth and final season of college football, rather, that Daniels is eyeballing a different way of doing things during his finale.

"He’s got a different aura about him in the way he approaches day to day."

— Matt Gildersleeve, KU strength coach on QB Jalon Daniels

Gildersleeve has seen that up-close-and-personal for the past six weeks of offseason workouts leading up to the first day of preseason camp on Thursday. And he shared what that looked like to him.

“The biggest growth for Jalon has definitely been mental, it’s just not even close,” Gildersleeve said. “And, really, it’s the approach he’s taking to the day to day.”

“Football’s always been extremely important to JD,” Gildersleeve continued. “He’s got a really rambunctious-type personality, but you haven’t really seen a lot of that this year when we’re doing things. He’s really focused on one thing and it’s what does he need to do to take this program to the next level.”

Gildersleeve made sure to point out on Thursday that this type of locked-and-loaded mentality is not something that he felt Daniels had been missing. Instead, the KU strength coach highlighted the fact that, rather than Daniels turning to it on Saturdays and during the most critical times at practice — Gildersleeve called this Daniels’ “gameday eyes” — he’s now utilizing the approach as his default demeanor.

“You see that every day now, and you’ve seen it since January,” Gildersleeve explained, noting that Daniels was the first one to arrive at practice on Thursday, “pulling up damn near right behind me.”

“He’s got a different aura about him in the way he approaches day to day,” he added. “He’s always approached the game in an elite fashion, but I’m just talking about the training, the team texts, I mean, everything. And how he’s approached it has been a game-like mindset and it’s been really impressive to see.”

Daniels also acknowledged that the path that brought him here was nothing new.

After each season of his career thus far, he has taken time to be intentional about looking inward and trying to drill down on what he could have done better and what he needs to improve moving forward.

Because the 2025 season is the last hurrah for the longtime KU QB, that led him to a more businesslike methodology. The make-up of the roster, with nearly half of the players suiting up alongside him being new, also played a role in how he decided to approach his final season.

Acknowledging that he’s still that fun-loving, smiley, dance-it-out type of dude, Daniels called himself “the old young guy on the team.”

“Today was the very first day of the last one,” he began. “So, I went out there, had a great experience, having fun with the guys playing football. It’s kind of what we’ve all been looking forward to, and the excitement of playing football again was absolutely out there on the field and you were able to see that in practice.”

What might have been missed, however, is how he operated when the fun wasn’t so obvious. Setting the tone. Staying locked in. Different words. More words. More urgency and intent.

“I feel like the mental aspect of the game gives me more clarity,” Daniels said Thursday. “That’s something you have to be able to show the guys. There are a lot of young guys who are looking up to be able to find out the way it works and how we operate the program. Sometimes it’s not always about being the happy, funny guy. Sometimes you have to be able to show that, when it’s time to win, that’s the main goal, to try to win every single game.”

He continued: “I feel like that’s something that happened with me internally. Every offseason, I go in to see what I need to do to help the team be better, what I can do to be able to put my best foot forward every single day. Last year, we had a whole bunch of guys who were here when coach Leipold first got here. Now, I have a whole entire new team (of guys) who are trying to learn the ropes.”

“It’s definitely a happy medium in between both that I have to be able to have, but I’m looking forward to taking on the challenge.”

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