August 22, 2011

Jake Brown
IrishIllustrated.com Recruiting Analyst

Last year at this time DaVaris Daniels was a jack-of-all-trades.

Primarily a wide receiver at Vernon Hills High School in the Chicago's northwest suburbs, catching the football wasn't the only skill Daniels flashed. At times he would line up in the backfield to run the ball. Other times he would set up in the shotgun to orchestrate the Wildcat formation.

It is probably no surprise Daniels' high school coaches sought more creative ways of putting the ball in his hands than lining him up out wide.

What Daniels has found since arriving at Notre Dame is all the extraneous stuff will have to wait as he soaks in the complexities of a college offense that reminds him of taking another class.

"We've got a lot of stuff in the playbook that you have to learn in a short period of time," Daniels said, "especially if you wanna see the field. And class is hard too. Not one is easier than the other."

What Daniels has come to realize during fall camp is no matter how well he picks up the playbook between now and the season opener he must find a way to be ready for meaningful playing time.

During the first couple weeks Daniels tried to pick up as much as he could from the coaching staff. Since then he has expanded the sharing of knowledge to include veterans Michael Floyd, TJ Jones and Robby Toma.

Toma in particular is a member of the receiver corps most trusted to pass along pointers.

"He's smart," Daniels said. "He knows football and he's always in the film room trying to get an up on the other team so he knows what he's talking about. TJ too. He's great at route running and he knows everything about the playbook. Both of those guys have really brought that upon me."

Even so, head coach Brian Kelly knows no matter how much study Daniels puts in this preseason he will still be plenty raw come game time against South Florida. That's more or less the nature of throwing freshmen into the fire.

"He's a guy that unfortunately has to play," Kelly said. "He's not ready to play. But he has to play. You know our limitations. I spoke candidly that that's a weakness in our program and that's why we have to recruit the receiver and running back position. He's going to forced into playing out there.

"We'll probably have to be creative with other positions in terms of playing more than one position. They're going to have to play X and Z and W. I don't like to do that, but that's kind of where we are with that position. I expect him to play this year."

With playing time to be had Daniels still hesitates to put expectations on himself until the season begins. Either way, the former four-star prospect believes bringing one thing consistently to the table can help his position group on Saturdays.

The coaching staff has made that clear.

"Speed," Daniels said. "I'd say that's the biggest one they've been talking to me about. If I can bring that every day then I think I'll make the receiving corps a lot better."