A few days before one of the most efficient games of his career, a virtual reality headset wrapped around Jayden Daniels’ eyes for the first time. Immersed in a digital reconstruction of Mississippi State’s stadium and holding two controllers, he went through LSU’s plays, getting extra reps in a venue he had never seen.

Once he was surrounded by cowbells inside the real thing that September weekend, Daniels completed a season-high 88.2% of his throws (30 of 34) for 361 yards and two touchdowns in a decisive conference road win. Afterward, he talked to LSU director of performance innovation Jack Marucci about the headset.

“ ‘Man, this thing really helps,’ ” Marucci recalled Daniels saying. “ ‘I need to do more of it.’ ”

Marucci usually does not call his colleagues after games, but the endorsement was too important to wait. After volunteering as the test site, LSU had worked for six months with the German company, Cognilize, that created the software within the headset. Daniels’ validation meant they developed a useful tool for him and other players.

“As soon as he said that,” Cognilize co-founder Verena Krakau said, “we were all in to put in whatever we could and to feed the system with everything they were giving us.”

Daniels’ improvement last season was obvious. He went from being a hesitant downfield passer to winning the Heisman Trophy, in the process turning himself into one of the top prospects in this week’s NFL draft. Evaluators viewed him as a potential Day 2 pick after his first year at LSU, and now he could go No. 2 overall Thursday night.

Multiple factors contributed to Daniels’ transformation. He followed a detailed offseason plan. He worked on mechanics with his personal coach. He added weight. He watched film at 5 a.m. He played behind a talented offensive line, and he threw to fellow projected first-round wide receivers Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas.

The virtual reality headset also became an important part of his preparation. Daniels used it for the rest of the season after the Mississippi State game, helping improve his processing speed without straining his body. He slid the headset on for about an hour every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday while performance innovation and analytics assistant Mario Macaluso controlled the plays from an iPad.

“It helped out a lot to get more mental reps outside of practice,” Daniels said in December. “It’s our playbook. You get to go against the defensive looks, certain coverages and stuff like that. It speeds up the processing.”

Marucci had been searching for a similar technology. He believed there had to be a way to artificially simulate what quarterbacks would see during games, and he wanted to put them in opposing stadiums so they would feel comfortable on the road. Until last March, everything he found moved like a video game.

“We didn't make much progress,” Marucci said. “There's other companies that came out with something similar, but it just wasn't realistic enough.”

Krakau and her business partner, Christian Hartmann, had a similar goal. They founded Cognilize in 2019 because they wanted to help players make quicker decisions. Hartmann had studied neuroscience and coached FC Giessen’s U19 soccer team. Krakau said “he was seeing the limitations of coaching,” and the former high school classmates created an artificial intelligence software.

“It's all motion captured of regular movement of individuals doing the activity,” Marucci said. “That allows your brain to really be immersed into this activity so it becomes real to you. It's not like if it was Madden or something where it's more robotic.”

They used their software on soccer goalies at first, but they always had an interest in American football, especially quarterbacks. The complex position requires people to anticipate defenses, read coverages and process information to make decisions within seconds.

Once COVID-19 travel restrictions were lifted, Krakau and Hartmann flew to the United States in 2022, seeking feedback from the high school, college and NFL levels. They connected along the way with Greg Studrawa, who coached LSU’s offensive line from 2007-13. He told then-LSU analyst Terry Malone, who relayed the concept to Marucci.

Marucci invited Krakau and Hartmann to Baton Rouge in March 2023. They met first with Marucci and quarterbacks coach Joe Sloan. Then they showed the demo to Daniels. It was important, Marucci said, to hear his opinion because whatever the staff did needed to appeal to the players. Daniels liked the idea.

“When you look at it, it was a no-brainer,” Marucci said. “I mean, this is exactly what we've been looking for.”

Over the next six months, LSU worked with Krakau and Hartmann on constructing the platform. They implemented numerous details, from the location of play clocks within stadiums to the color of opponents’ uniforms. LSU sent them its offensive playbook and research on opponents’ defenses, creating a realistic picture of what Daniels would see on Saturdays.

By the Mississippi State game, LSU’s third of the season, there were 50 to 70 plays in the system. Krakau and Hartmann added more as LSU shared weekly game plans, and because every coverage has multiple variations, they programmed around 1,000 potential plays by the end of the season. Marucci joked that Hartmann could be like Ted Lasso.

As they learned more about football, Krakau and Hartmann installed unpredictable but realistic quirks. One day, a tight end slipped on one of the routes, making Daniels adjust. He also noticed the first time the cornerbacks played press man coverage. The defensive player beat what would have normally been his first read, so Daniels followed his progression and threw somewhere else. He started laughing.

“He has to have some sort of improv,” Macaluso said. “He has to have some sort of randomness to it. It can't just be the same thing all the time because he will then just become a robot. You don't wanna teach or train any athlete ever to be like that, which is another part of the tool that is so great.”

Krakau and Hartmann knew the system needed that unpredictability and variation to make Daniels practice realistic situations. It took a lot of work. When they visited Baton Rouge during the season, they kept delaying their flight back to Germany. At one point, they did not sleep for 36 hours as they tried to improve the platform.

“You see this guy going out there taking all these hits and doing everything to constantly get better, and then you're like, 'OK, and I'm the one who goes to sleep early? No. I'm putting in everything I can for that guy,’” Krakau said. “Maybe it helps him. If not, OK. But maybe it can help him a little bit, and we were totally committed to try everything we could.”

Daniels used the headset in LSU’s walkthrough room at first, then he moved to the indoor practice field to have more space. Working from LSU’s call sheet, Macaluso would choose a play on the iPad and read it to Daniels. He had about eight seconds to identify the defense Macaluso had picked before he received the virtual snap.

The screen showed Macaluso everything Daniels saw within the headset and let him control the speed of the play. He steadily made them faster until the simulated action moved at a pace 1.7 seconds faster than real games, similar to how one can adjust the speed of audiobooks. Daniles told them games themselves slowed down.

Near the end of the season, after Daniels had gotten to where he would rep the play at 1.6 seconds, Macaluso accidentally turned down the speed to normal.

“‘That was slow,” Macaluso recalled Daniels saying. “ ‘I don't like that. Put that back up.' ”

Using the headset helped Daniels know where the play clocks were on the road before he walked into stadiums for the first time. Before LSU played at Missouri in early October, coach Brian Kelly talked to Daniels on the field. He started telling Daniels about the stadium and the location of the play clocks.

“Coach, I know where they're at,” Daniels said, pointing them out.

Kelly later told Marucci the story. Kelly had supported the use of the technology and wanted to know more details. As they talked about the artificial intelligence software, Marucci told him about the play clocks in the digital stadiums.

“‘He never ever told me why he knew him so well,’” Marucci recalled Kelly saying. “‘Now it makes sense.'”

Before LSU played its regular-season finale against Texas A&M, Marucci talked to Daniels in the athletic training room. He knew Daniels moved through his reads quicker now because of eye tracking technology within the headset, but he wanted to know how much Daniels thought the technology helped him scan the field.

He hoped Daniels would say 5% to 10%. Daniels did not hesitate.

“Seventy-five to 80%,” Daniels said.

Even though Daniels left, LSU continues to help build the software. Quarterback Garrett Nussmeier used the headset before his first start in the ReliaQuest Bowl. Other quarterbacks worked with it before spring practice, and a couple receivers learned routes. Marucci wants to add protections, third-down blitzes and crowd noise. He hopes every position can use the device.

Krakau and Hartmann have made more adjustments since the end of the season. Macaluso had to download an update last week. They have also installed the software for other college and NFL teams to use next fall. Krakau declined to say which teams or how many, citing NDAs.

Daniels kept using the software as he went through the predraft process. The technology helped him thrive at LSU, and it remained part of his routine on his way to the next level, this time giving him extra work before he visited teams.

“He is a very elite processor,” Marucci said. “But none of us are perfect. It's like anything we do as a human being. You may have some areas that you may have to work on, and I think it enhanced the way he could track and anticipate and get the ball out.”

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