Feeling almost forgotten, Daniels changed his mental approach
You don’t have time to feel sorry for yourself in major college football if you want to eventually see the field. Mike Daniels found that lesson out the hard way firsthand during his first season with West Virginia.
A junior college all-American at Globe Tech in New York, Daniels arrived in Morgantown with high expectations but things didn’t turn out exactly as he would have hoped a year ago.
It took Daniels longer to adjust to high-level college football practices than he initially thought putting him behind the eight ball in fall camp. Couple that with some nagging injuries in the early part of the season and it was the perfect storm for him to fall down the depth chart.
Although he played in an odd-stack defense at the junior college level, the differences between that and what he was required to do at West Virginia were utterly different. Instead of just relying on his athleticism and lining up to play football, Daniels had to learn calls and checks.
“That was the hardest part,” he said.
By the end of the season, the Miami native had appeared in only six games, primarily as a reserve and on special teams. It wasn’t the season he imagined when he signed with the program.
But even above the adjustment on the field, it was his mental approach that needed adjusted the most.
“The toughest aspect was buying into the system and trusting everybody. Last year I just felt like forgotten almost,” he admitted.
That’s when Daniels got to work. It started with changing his approach to his situation and focusing on what he needed to do in order to put himself in position to see time, instead of wondering why he wasn’t seeing it to begin with.
With only one year left, it took a learning experience like last season to show him that the game of football doesn’t wait around for anybody. It’s adjust or run the risk of being passed up in the process. That required looking into the mirror and changing his focus.
It was now or never for Daniels.
“You know what you’re capable of, nobody else knows it, but you do. That doesn’t matter at the end of the day. It doesn’t matter what you think you can do, you have to show it,” Daniels said. “That’s your resume, if you don’t show it then what?”
Daniels put in the work on the field and in the weight room appearing to spring drills in the best shape of his career and that only continued to carry over into fall camp. That work paid off with the release of the initial depth chart when it was Daniels name sitting atop one of the cornerback spots.
The Mountaineers plan to use as many as four at the position, but it was a testament to the work and the consistency that Daniels brought to the field on a daily basis this fall. Cornerbacks coach Doug Belk believes that Daniels brings a physical element to the game and impressed with his play-making.
West Virginia charts the production of each of their cornerbacks when it comes to a variety of categories such as tackles, interceptions, pass breakups on the positive side and missed opportunities, blown coverages and poor technique on the other side of the coin. When graded against his counterparts, it was Daniels that emerged as one of two of the top options based on that criteria.
“He had a lot of production, a lot of positive things,” Belk said.
Now in line for his first career start against Virginia Tech, Daniels now realizes that seeing the field is just the start to his journey if he wants to make his mark in his swan song. He now plays with maximum effort each snap and remains driven.
“You just have to keep your head down and keep going,” he said.
A lesson learned over time.
