Darrion Daniels livens up the Cowboys
STILLWATER — Veteran linebacker Chad Whitener tried his best to carry on a chat with a reporter, when suddenly his focus veered across the room where Darrion Daniels was drawing a crowd.
“He’s singing, right now,” Whitener said in mock amazement.
Singing. Joking. Dancing.
Tossing verbal jabs. Doing the splits, just for kicks.
All are in Daniels’ wheelhouse, operating as Oklahoma State’s outgoing and outrageous mood-maker.
“Oh, he’s hilarious,” Whitener said. “He cracks jokes all day. Sometimes they’re misses. But most of the time they land.”
In his junior season, Daniels has landed as a quality defensive tackle, helping fill the hole created by the departure of Vincent Taylor and Mote Maile. In the Cowboys’ 41-34 win at Texas Tech, he produced five tackles and two quarterback hurries to earn the team’s Defensive Most Valuable Player nod for the game. For the season, he leads all OSU linemen with 16 tackles.
“They pretty much dominated the game up front,” Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury said of OSU’s defensive front.
Daniels was front and center in that. But then, that’s his style, on and off the field. He brings it, and he brings it with energy and style.
“Darrion’s kind of like me, he enjoys what he does,” said safety Ramon Richards.
Enjoys all that he does, too, even firing barbs at teammates standing across the line during practices.
“I talk smack to everybody, because I’m friends with everybody,” Daniels said, breaking into a wide smile. “There’s just such a positive vibe. There’s no negativity at all.
“You might see a few pushes after the whistle every once in a while, but in the locker room it’s all love. We all swim together, we play together and we dance together.”
They don’t all do the splits together, mostly because few can do the splits. Daniels does, though, at 6-foot-3 and 300 pounds.
“Darrion can drop instantly and split,” Richards said. “I can’t do it. Not even going to try.”
But then, said defensive end Jordan Brailford, expect the unexpected when it comes to Daniels. That’s something Brailford learned quickly last year when the two were roommates on campus.
“You’ll walk in on some funny moments,” Brailford said, “him singing or dancing or doing something goofy. But he was a good roommate, for the most part.” For the most part? “He’s a very colorful person, always singing, always happy, but ragging on you and talking about you at the same time — with a smile,” Brailford said. “He’s a real character.”
By luck, Brailford found an opportunity to flip the script on his jokester roommate one day last year. Returning home and finding his roomie locked out following a shower, covered only by a towel, Brailford took his time in offering help.
“He couldn’t go to the office to get a key in just his towel,” Brailford said. “I let him hang for a little bit. I took my time, took my shower, got comfortable.”
This week, OSU produced a video of Daniels, revealing a softer side to the big tackle, shown smoothly delivering some soulful singing vocals. In the video, Daniels credits a musical family, especially his mother Rhonda, for providing influence that eventually led him onto the show choir at Bishop Dunne High School in Dallas.
“There’s other things in life, other than football,” Daniels said. “When I’m on the field, I give it 100 percent of my attention. But when I’m outside the field, I have other things I like to partake in.”
All of that, all of Daniels, his teammates say, is what makes him so likable, even lovable.
“Darrion is a great guy,” said offensive lineman Marcus Keyes, who often clashes with Daniels in practices. “I love him. He’s almost like my best friend. No, he is my best friend. He brightens up my days.”
That even goes for when Daniels is chirping across the line, digging Keyes and others during drills, with a smile.
“We knock heads, but we have fun out there, too,” Keyes said. “When we’re competing against each other, he likes to get the blood flowing, making sure we’re bringing competition and making ourselves better; making them better.
“Darrion just makes things fun. You need somebody like that around, because if you don’t, it gets boring. He’s going to help bring the jazz level.”