The third in a series previewing position groups for the Arkansas State University football team.
JONESBORO -- Jaxon Dailey pulled together his offense on the sidelines during a practice last November. It was two days before Pleasant Hill (Iowa) Southeast Polk would play for a football state championship, again meeting an Ankeny team that had beaten it for the title a year prior.
Dailey's group had gone three-and-out in a two-minute drill scenario. For the winningest quarterback at Southeast Polk, that was unacceptable, and it certainly wasn't going to earn them their school's first-ever title.
He told his teammates as much.
"It was just fantastic," Southeast Polk Coach Brad Zelenovich told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, adding he knew from that moment his team would win. "Unabated, unscripted, him pouring his heart out knowing how important this game was for not only him and our seniors, but our entire football team and our community."
If all goes to plan for Arkansas State, that 24-7 victory in November 2021 will be the last time Dailey plays a meaningful snap until at least next season. With James Blackman already declared the Red Wolves' 2022 starter, Dailey currently finds himself in a fight with Miami (Ohio) transfer AJ Mayer for ASU's backup spot.
But when Blackman departs after this season, the road will be paved for Dailey to fill the void and become the face of the Red Wolves for multiple years.
Should his history be any indication, Dailey will be plenty primed for the gig.
"He didn't come in with any arrogance. He was a humble kid, he understood his position and he just wanted to get better each day," Blackman said of Dailey. "He doesn't want to do anything but be great."
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ASU Coach Butch Jones built his first complete recruiting class around Dailey. The 6-3, 215-pound left-hander committed to the Red Wolves in late April 2021, nearly seven months before he was allowed to sign his national letter of intent.
Dailey then willingly took on the role of recruiter, helping ASU build a 2022 class that ranked second in the Sun Belt Conference and 14th among Group of 5 programs, per 247Sports.
The job continued once he arrived at ASU in January as an early enrollee.
"First, I fell in love with the program and the campus and then eventually, I kind of fell in love with the town," Dailey said in February. "[I felt] like I had two homes before I ended up officially moving down here just because of how often I was in Jonesboro."
That he made the decision to bypass all the festivities that come with being a high school senior -- like prom and graduation -- was of little surprise to his high school coach.
"He's kind of a gym rat, so to speak, when it comes to the preparation," Zelenovich said. "We haven't had anybody better in terms of understanding our whole offensive system and what we're trying to do. He loves football and he loves all the things people don't see."
By the time ASU's spring camp ended, Dailey was leading the second-team offense in the Red Wolves' spring game.
Some of that was a matter of circumstance. Layne Hatcher, despite starting seven games in 2021, transferred to Sun Belt foe Texas State, leaving ASU with three scholarship quarterbacks on its roster.
But Jones also made a conscious decision to shift Wyatt Begeal to wide receiver, leaving Dailey as Blackman's backup.
Against the first-team defense in April, Dailey completed 23 of 35 passes for 185 yards and 3 touchdowns.
The Red Wolves have since added another veteran to the roster in AJ Mayer, a junior transfer from Miami (Ohio). Jones has said he is more than open to the possibility that Dailey could reassert himself as ASU's No. 2 by the start of the season. Both Dailey and Mayer have gotten reps with the second-team offense during fall camp.
"Even though he's had that experience of being here, he's still going through the nuances of his first college training camp," Jones said of Dailey. "When you get to training camp, it's all about physical, mental and emotional toughness, which he has. But just the daily grind and then the install goes at a completely different pace."
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The Red Wolves hope they don't have to send Dailey into action this fall. That'll mean Blackman is both healthy and productive for 12 games, something that's only happened twice in his previous five seasons.
"The truth of the matter is, any of them are one or two plays away from being a starter," offensive coordinator Keith Heckendorf said. "There can't be a casual laid-back, 'Hey, I'm just going to get through this season' approach and figure it out beyond. It's, 'I've got to get ready to play right now,' so the sense of urgency for [Dailey] is a daily thing -- constant improvement, never being satisfied."
The goal, regardless, is for Dailey to be prepared to seize the No. 1 job next spring.
The mentality to be not just a quarterback, but THE quarterback is already there.
"Even when he's walking around the facility and I'm talking to him, you can see that he just walked with a certain swagger about himself," transfer wide receiver Champ Flemings said. "He's not shy about going out there and going to work and doing what he does best."
Everyone, Dailey included, knows the freshman is going to make mistakes. It's part of adapting to college football, adjusting to new teammates and understanding what's being asked of him on a daily basis.
They all appear to be confident he'll be ready whenever the time for him comes at ASU.
Those back home in the Des Moines suburbs know it, too. They've lived it.
"At the quarterback position, it's about winning games," Zelenovich said. "Being a guy that people wanted to be around and people wanted to play hard for [mattered] because [winning] was so important to him. There was not one person in our program that questioned how much he cared."