Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels signs the sweatshirt of a fan during the Kansas Football Fan Appreciation Day Saturday, April 5, 2025.

Precious few players occupy the college football spotlight for so long that they represent their schools four separate times at conference media days, but few players have career arcs quite like that of Jalon Daniels.

Daniels has been Kansas’ starting quarterback for long enough that he has spoken for the Jayhawks in AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in 2022 and 2023, Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas in 2024 and now, by Wednesday, will have done so at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, as well.

That level of continuity with one program alone makes him a rarity in the modern age of college football, but a big part of the reason why he’s been around so long — the reason he even had a redshirt year to use in 2025 in first place — is his past injuries. The shoulder injury that cost him a significant chunk of 2022 and the recurring back tightness that both derailed 2023 and left him rusty in early 2024 have left their mark on his career.

And unfortunately for Daniels, he has another medical topic, albeit a minor one, to answer questions about this time around: the offseason knee procedure that left him limited for most of the spring, an ill-timed development that coincided with an offensive personnel overhaul for the Jayhawks.

As many interesting offseasons as Daniels has had during his KU career, this might be the most compelling one of all, as he heads into the year that could secure his already considerable legacy in Lawrence while also catapulting him into the professional ranks. The unique circumstances of this year, with Daniels one of the lone returning starters among numerous new faces at such a pivotal juncture in his career, mean there will be a lot of questions for media members to ask at The Star. Questions like:

• Why did he decide to come back in the first place? It feels like a long time ago now, but at least in the public discourse, there was some question about whether Daniels would come back to KU at all for a sixth season. He didn’t immediately commit to a return like he had midway through 2023, and he walked with many of his classmates in senior-day festivities, which he explained was primarily because he was graduating in the winter.

However, he also didn’t wait long to make his plans known, announcing he was coming back just six days after the 2024 season ended, between initial reports of offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes’ departure and the announcement of Jim Zebrowski’s promotion.

• What was his perspective on the elevation of Zebrowski? Zebrowski, who previously served as the quarterbacks coach and still occupies that role now that he is the offensive coordinator, has been a longtime steadying presence for Daniels on the sideline throughout their time in Lawrence. It’ll be interesting to hear what the very, very brief OC search was like from Daniels’ perspective, as well as his initial thoughts on Zebrowski’s offense, how it differs from the schemes of Grimes and Andy Kotelnicki before him and how it fits Daniels’ skills.

• What was the deal with the knee procedure? For the first time in his career, which was five years long at the time, Daniels started a full season at quarterback in 2024. It wasn’t always pretty, and in fact he took until KU’s midseason loss at Arizona State to really look fully like the Daniels of early 2022 and early 2023. But it was, nonetheless, a full year.

That made it quite surprising when, on Feb. 6, KU Athletics sent out a press release that read, in its entirety, “Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels recently underwent a minor knee procedure. It was successful and he will be a limited participant during spring practice.” (He did return to some level of action partway through the spring, to a greater degree than when he was coming back from the back injury in the spring of 2024). Daniels will undoubtedly be asked about what was wrong with his knee and the process of determining how and when to address it.

• What has it been like working with the new receivers and tight ends? KU coach Lance Leipold recently relayed an anecdote from trainer Trent Carter, who saw Daniels throw the ball 70 or 75 yards in the air, and apparently Daniels said, “I didn’t realize how fast Emmanuel Henderson is. I have to let go of it a little sooner.” That was tied to an assurance from Leipold that Daniels is on full schedule and doing everything he’s supposed to do as part of the summer.

That’s an encouraging development for the KU offense, but it also rather appropriately demonstrates his need to build familiarity with players like transfer receivers Henderson, Cam Pickett, Levi Wentz and Bryson Canty and tight ends DeShawn Hanika and Boden Groen — six players who will be among his top targets this season and with whom, with the possible exception of Hanika (who missed all of last year due to injury), he has not previously worked.

That’s compared to a previous group of now-graduated wideouts whom Daniels essentially grew up with — and even despite that past level of familiarity he was still out of sync with them in 2024. He and the new targets are going to have to build relationships quickly for KU’s offense to accomplish its goals in 2025.