ASU Recruiting Scandal: How Is Jayden Daniels’ Mother Dragged Into Controversy?

Scam headlines regarding the typically esteemed College football realm have never been foreign to the classic fans. Especially when it comes to violating the transfer portal rules, the instances have become countless. With too many new sets of instructions about the portal procedure in the current CFB, the scope of misinterpreting it purposefully or unknowingly has simultaneously broadened. It sounds complex, and it is complex.

Around the same time when the NCAA called out Utah State’s DeLane Fitzgerald for tampering with potential recruitment, elsewhere on the land, Arizona State head coach Herm Edwards and former associate head coach Antonio Pierce found themselves in deep water, getting accused of illegal tryouts, tampering staffs, etc. But they ain’t the only ones to take the bump of their actions. Regina Jackson, the mother of Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels, also turned out to be a face behind the legal mishap.

How did Regina Jackson get involved with the ASU recruiting scandal?

After days of going back and forth with Arizona State dealing with the summons regarding the misregulation of the program, a detailed NCAA report was released on Thursday in conjunction. It imposed an eight-year show-cause penalty on Antonio Pierce, the current Las Vegas Raiders’ head coach. That said, the story is deeper than meets the eye. Regina Jackson, the mother of Jayden Daniels, the no. 2 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, reportedly dished out flight tickets to the ASU players, including her son.

She didn’t hand tickets directly to the recipients; Chris Hawkins, the defensive backs coach for ASU, worked as a mediator. While Jackson paying for the tickets didn’t directly breach the NCAA rule, the sheer involvement of the insider definitely does.

The NCAA’s rulebook hypothetically states that each recruit is allowed up to one official visit, for which the school bears the expense. They can even unofficially visit the school but aren’t, in any way, entitled to receive travel stipends in order to do that. But wait, the escapade is even more layered.

Peeping through the other side of the infamous allegation

Herm Edwards was caught in a leaked clip alongside a top 100 recruit around the weight room at ASU violating COVID-19 dead period rule. Although the photo and clip aren’t yet out to the public, it was Edwards’ signature maroon hat that spilled the bean.

Another associated allegation says that the recruiting officials were seemingly ‘hiding’ recruits in the stadium during ASU’s one home game last year, which is again a COVID-19 dead period infraction.

The weight of the allegations not only seems huge just because it goes against the NCAA norm but also because it left people’s health at stake in a worldwide emergency. So, the consequences are a bit heavier on the Sun Devils.