MU's Daniel inspires local QBs

Roy Miller woke up Friday morning, put on his best University of Missouri football gear and headed for Peve Stadium, on the campus of Blue Springs High School.
The lifetime University of Missouri fan was there to see Tiger quarterback Chase Daniel, the Heisman Trophy candidate who led the 12-2 Tigers to a Cotton Bowl championship and the No. 4 overall rating last year.
Daniel was the featured coach at Friday’s Quarterbacks and Wide Receiver Camp at Blue Springs High School. Daniel had been a guest coach the past two years and told Wildcats football coach Kelly Donohoe that he would clear some time on his schedule to attend this year.
“I know Kelly is a Jayhawk,” quipped Daniel, “but he’s a Tiger at heart.”
As Daniel gathered the 175 middle school and high school players in attendance to midfield, Miller walked to the front row of the metal bleachers to catch Daniel’s pep talk.
“I’ve seen some good young arms here today – maybe even a few D-I prospects,” said Daniel, as youngsters high fived each other and beamed from ear to ear. “I know some of you will go on to play college ball, and some of you might not get past high school.
“But I want you to remember one thing – there’s a reason you’re called a student-athlete and there is a reason student is first. You have to take care of things in the classroom before you do anything else.
“That’s because the classroom is going to take care of you long after you’re done playing football.”
After Daniel’s brief talk, the coaches and players left the field for a quick lunch break.
Miller approached Daniel, who stuck out his hand and smiled when he saw the Grain Valley resident’s football jersey.
“I just want to thank you for coming back your senior year,” Miller said. “I hope you know what that meant to all us fans.”
Daniel stopped in his tracks, and thanked Miller for the comment.
“I wanted him to know what it meant to the fans like me, the old guys who have followed Missouri all those years,” said Miller, who has followed Missouri football since 1957. “I told him that he’s going to experience something that guys like (Kansas State basketball player) Michael Beasley (who left after his freshman year and was the No. 2 overall draft pick in the NBA) will never experience – that’s the college life and love of the fans. We were all afraid Chase would leave after last year, and when he came back, it was like we knew how much he cared for his school, his team and his fans.”
Daniel’s fans weren’t all old enough to get that senior discount at Bob Evans restaurants.
“I was a little bit in awe when I saw him,” said Jared Lanpher, the junior who will start at quarterback this year for the Wildcats. “We all know how busy he is, and for him to come here and work with the camp is awesome. I didn’t get any one-on-one time with him – although I’d have loved that.
“But I made sure to listen to everything he said, because he came here to coach, not just pose for pictures and sign some autographs. I think we all learned a lot from him.”
Daniel seemed honored when a camper or a parent or a proud Missouri grandpa like Miller asked for a signature.
When Miller pulled out a soft gold and black football, that played the Missouri fight song when it was tossed to the ground, Daniel laughed and showed it to some of the other coaches.
“Believe me, I know how lucky I am to be in this position,” said Daniel, who joined the rest of the staff for lunch at . “And I know it’s not going to last forever. I hope it lasts for several more years – but you just don’t know.”
As he’s talking, a cute little pixie with a Mizzou football appears out of nowhere.
She plops down beside Daniel as her mom takes a photo.
Guess it just goes with the territory when you’re a Sports Illustrated cover boy.
When asked about a junior season where threw for 4,170 yards and 33 touchdowns and led the Tigers to a stunning 36-28 victory over Kansas in sold-out Arrowhead Stadium and an even more impressive 38-7 rout of Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl, Daniel said the highlights were too numerous to recollect.
“If I had to pick one, it would be the Kansas game,” Daniel said. “It meant so much to each team and when you looked at Arrowhead Stadium and saw all those people it gave you chills.
“If I had to pick a moment where I knew our team was for real, I’d say it came after the Game 6 loss to Oklahoma. For the first time since I was with the Tigers there was no panic. We just went back to work and got ready for the next game. We were a confident team, and that makes you feel pretty good.”
On the field or off, Daniel proves time and time again to be a class act.
“Chase gets it,” Donohoe said. “He’s having a good time, and he’s working hard. He had to totally rearrange his schedule to be here at camp, and he did it. If you knew the demands on his time it would just blow you away. But he promised that he would be here today and he didn’t want to let anyone down.”