The Details: Daniels Is ‘Blessed’ For Opportunity At Washington
September 16, 2016 | Football, General
By Mason Kelley
GoHuskies.com
Darrell Daniels looked around the field. Wearing a purple jersey and cradling his Washington football helmet, the tight end thought about the life that's led him to this point.
The senior from Pittsburg, Calif. never imagined this moment. Growing up, he couldn't envision the day he would become a standout football player at a Division I university, let alone one of the team's leaders.
But here he is, two games into his final season with the Huskies, and he has become a guy his younger teammates can emulate. He has become the guy Washington gathers around on the field for a fiery pregame speech. He has developed into a reliable playmaker and physical blocker.
When he thinks about all of these things, when he looks at how far he has come, this life doesn't always seem real for the Northern California native.
"It's wild to me," he said. "I never would have imagined me being a leader at a university this prestigious. To have all this attention for being a leader, it's crazy. It's wild to me, but I'm thankful for it."
He considers himself "blessed" with the opportunity to play for the Huskies, so he has done everything he can to make the most of it.
"God blessed me with the opportunity to play at the University of Washington," Daniels said. "I just ran with the opportunity and now I'm here."
Growing up, Daniels said he was a "hard-headed child," raised by a mother and grandmother who share the same name – Exie.
"I've got two amazing women who taught me the values of life," he said. "They taught me I could be greater than other people told me I could be. They took care of me."
Life in Pittsburg wasn't always easy. He described the area as "rough."
"There's a lot of violence out there, a lot of distractions," he said. "It can be a trap. It's difficult for people to get out of that city. For me to get out of there, it's an example that it's possible."
With Daniels' mother working at the local VA hospital to support her son and his grandmother, it was the elder Exie who kept her grandson off the streets, ensuring he was always in church on Sundays.
"My mom had to work all the time," Daniels said. "She was at work, doing what she could to keep me out of trouble, so my grandmother, she stuck by me."
With mother and grandmother keeping Daniels pointed in the right direction, it was football that helped him continue down the proper path. But, before he could step on a football field, he had to convince his mother.
"My mom didn't want me to play football," he said. "I had to beg her to play."
Then one day, when he was about 7, she surprised him. She took him to a flag football practice.
"I was just so happy after that," he said.
He eventually ended up playing youth football for his uncle, Marcus.
"He taught me the basics, the discipline," Daniels said. "I was a hard-headed child. I didn't like to listen, so he really just instilled discipline into me."
By the time he was a senior at Freedom High School in Oakley, Calif., he had developed into highly touted recruit.
But for Daniels, earning a scholarship to Washington was only the beginning. When he first arrived on campus, he wasn't sure he would make it four years.
"I was always down on myself," he said. "I can't stay at this school. I'm not ready for this."
It isn't easy to make the transition from senior standout to incoming freshman. There is an adjustment period.
"Freshman year, I thought I was going to play," Daniels said.
Not only did he plan on playing, he thought he would step into a spot as one of Washington's receivers. He didn't anticipate a position change. But that's what happened, he was shifted to tight end.
"I wasn't used to being a role player, a special teams type of guy," Daniels said. "That whole year, I struggled with that. That was struggle bus for me. I wanted to leave. I thought I was never going to be able to play here."
But he kept working. He embraced the position change. He became a leader.
"Staying here and fighting through all the adversity, it taught me how to become a strong man and a leader," Daniels said. "I put my best foot forward and started working harder."
Watching Daniels develop has been a point of pride for the senior's position coach, Jordan Paopao.
"It's something I'm extremely proud of and a testament to him," Paopao said. "He's an unbelievable athlete to be that big and run that fast. And one of his better qualities is he's just a very smart individual.
"He is truly a pleasure to be around. He's got a great personality. He's got natural leadership ability. He's someone people naturally gravitate to and he's done a tremendous job growing up during his four years here."
He has grown so much over the course of four years, embracing a position change in addition to going through a shift in head coaches, that coach Chris Petersen tabbed him as Washington's offensive representative for Pac-12 Media Days.
"That was a dream for me," he said. "It was an honor and a blessing. This program taught me how to be a man."
As a player, Paopao said the tight end has the skills to be "physically dominant."
"He plays the game extremely hard, the way it's supposed to be played," the coach said. "He Approaches life that way."
At 6-foot-4, 232 pounds, Daniels has become a talented blocker, while maintaining receiver speed. The combination of size and speed makes him a valuable asset for the Huskies' offense.
He has gotten this far because, when things were difficult early in his career, he turned adversity into motivation.
"Now I know I can fight through anything," he said. "When adversity hits, I know I can overcome it."
That confidence has helped Daniels on and off the field and, regardless of what happens the rest of the season, his time as Washington has pushed to a point where he can now take care of the women who raised him and his family back home in Pittsburg.
"I hope my talents take me far," he said, "allow me to go to the next level, so I can take care of my family, give back to them, show them a different life that I've been able to see being here."
