DT Chris Daniels Elects to Transfer

Redshirt freshman defensive tackle Chris Daniels has announced that he’ll be leaving the program.

We’d been...lukewarm at best on Daniels in this year’s Thinking Texas Football, but allowed ourselves a frisson of excitement as the big man got significantly leaner over the summer and appeared to be sipping from the Water Bottle of Buy-In. The Water Bottle of Buy-In didn’t lead to any Pissing of Excellence (though I’m not sure how Daniels’ actual hydration-chart scores came in) and you never heard a peep about him through Fall camp. Supplanted by JUCO transfer Jamari Chisholm on the depth chart, Daniels decided it was time to seek greener pastures.

For 2017 this is essentially non-news news, as Daniels was unlikely to see the field outside of a run of injury luck on the defensive front that rivals what we’ve endured along the OL. Going forward, it could well be addition by subtraction - Theoretical Ceiling Chris Daniels would have been handy depth in 2018-19, but Actual Chris Daniels was more likely to simply take up roster space (even though he’s taking up less meatspace these days).

Next year’s depth chart on the defensive probably looks like:

4i: Roach, Graham

NT: Daniels, Wilbon, Coburn

4i: Omenihu, Chisholm/Cummins

B-Backer: McCulloch, Bimage, Hager???

That’s not bad, but the need for beef in the 2018 recruiting class just took another uptick. It’s not the ideal cycle to be chasing active 4i prospects in the state or surrounding region, but names like Arlington Lamar’s Bobby Brown and Ronnie Perkins out of St. Louis feel like even higher priorities.

Good luck to Daniels wherever he ends up.