Brian Kelly confirms Jayden Daniels will play in SEC Championship despite injury

LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels will play against Georgia in the SEC Championship Game on Saturday afternoon, head coach Brian Kelly confirmed during his pre-game press conference on Thursday. Daniels took some severe physical punishment the regular season finale against Texas A&M and his status for Saturday wasn’t ironclad — at least until now.

Along with Daniels, another pair of LSU players are looking on track to play against the Bulldogs after missing some time. Most importantly, though, is getting the quarterback right with a championship on the line.

“He’s going to be good, too,” Kelly said. “He’s had a good week of practice and he’ll play for us on Saturday.”

Helping Daniels — and potentially saving him from some hits — will be the return of running back Josh Williams. After missing the final two weeks of the regular season, LSU’s leading non-Daniels rusher is looking to get back in the fold against Georgia.

“I was really pleased with Josh yesterday,” Kelly said. “I think he looked like himself, finally. You know, this is an injury that takes some time, because of the way he runs. He’s such a physical runner and he plays so hard. His physical exertion and effort is one where he’s not a guy that’s going to go at less than 100%. Yesterday was really the first time where I felt like, ‘OK, we’ve got Josh back to where he needs to be, to be confident and effective.'”

And cornerback Jarrick Bernard-Converse, a key cog in the LSU secondary who missed the Texas A&M game due to a concussion, will also be back after clearing protocol, Kelly said.

“And Jarrick was cleared through our concussion protocol and he is obviously going to play an important role for us, as well,” Kelly said.

Against favored Georgia, the Tigers will need every healthy player they can get.