Trusting Process: Florida’s KD Daniels Finds Strength in Patience
Ever since Florida running back KD Daniels arrived in Gainesville in January of 2024, he’s learned that patience really is a virtue. The former four-star recruit from West Point, Miss., knew what he signed up for when committing to UF — he would be walking into a talented and crowded running back room.
Led by former UF running back Montrell Johnson Jr. and then redshirt junior Ja’Kobi Jackson as the No. 2, spots for any playing time were limited, given that the Gators also had freshman Jadan Baugh and Treyaun Webb in the room.
Coming into a situation like this after being so successful at West Point High School could have deterred Daniels. At West Point, Daniels served as the team’s gadget player, playing wherever told and making an impact.
“We just couldn’t take him off the field,” West Point High School coach Brett Morgan said. “So he played wideout, he played quarterback, he played more snaps at quarterback than anything for us. He would throw it, he would catch it, he’d run it, he could do it all because he worked so hard.”
The Green Wave offense is a traditional wildcat formation, where the quarterback serves as the primary ball carrier and has his fullbacks and tight ends in front of him as the lead blockers. Daniels stood out playing quarterback, where he put up some historic numbers.
Loading ...In 2022, West Point dropped its third straight state title game after a heartbreaking 31-21 loss in the Mississippi 5A championship game. But with his senior season on deck, Daniels was determined to get West Point back on the mountain top. That 2023 season did not start the way West Point envisioned, the Green Wave were 0-2 and dealing with many inexperienced players on both sides of the ball.
Sensing the urgency, West Point found itself in the foxhole early on, but never wavered. In a must-win game against Noxubee County High School and down to its starting running back, Daniels stepped up — rushing for 427 yards, scoring all seven West Point touchdowns and willed his team to a 50-40 win. From there, the team started to rally behind the then Florida commit all the way to the state championship game.
There, he capped his final game rushing for 253 yards, scoring three touchdowns and received game MVP, but more importantly won the game 35-7 and capped off his career as a champion. It was quite the senior year for Daniels, who finished with 288 carries for 2,737 rushing yards and scored 29 touchdowns and earned MHSAA 5A Mr. Football honors.
“We don’t win it without him. Simple as that,” Morgan said. “We’ve had some phenomenal football players in our program, but we’ve never had to lean as hard on one person as we did him that year. And he carried the team and all the pressures that go with it, because winning in West Point, that’s the expectation, is to win a state championship. Anything outside of a state championship at West Point is failure. So he had all that pressure on him, and he just handled getting carried, and we were able to get it his senior year. It was a great story.”
Daniels had a long list of schools recruiting him in high school and while he could’ve stayed in-state with Mississippi State or Ole Miss, even out-of-state powers like Michigan State, Auburn and Texas A&M, Daniels fell in love with the Gators and chose Florida. Daniels credits the way Florida emphasized loyalty and making sure Daniels felt at home.
His time at Florida did not get off to the greatest start, appearing in just four games and getting banged up in the process. However, due to only playing four games, Daniels earned a redshirt for the year and maintained an extra year of eligibility. With how tough the situation became, Daniels could have grown frustrated with the lack of playing time and his spot on the depth chart not at the same level as his fellow freshman Baugh, who emerged as one of Florida’s premier backs in the middle of the season.
Instead, Daniels used the time to learn from his fellow backs and coaches about being patient and waiting for your moment.
“Just being able to sit back and learn from them,” Daniels said. “There’s a lot of talent in our room. So we just feed off each other and learn different ways. It just gave me time to look back on the things that I needed to work on and just help me in the long run.”
Daniels’ patience and preparation paid off at the end of his rookie campaign with a win against Tulane in the Gasparilla Bowl, where he had five carries for 55 yards and scored his first collegiate touchdown on a 25-yard scramble after a fumbled snap.
This season, Daniels is still in search of a significant role in the offense. Daniels came into the season fifth on the depth chart behind Baugh, Jackson, Webb and freshman Duke Clark. Still, Daniels remained patient and has relied on his faith to get him through this time of uncertainty.
“First and foremost, I’m a man of God. So, even through those times of thinking that I’m ready, maybe I’m going through that season to be able to handle success or that time that’s for me playing,” Daniels said. “Just having my faith in God and be ready for that time.”
Due to some unforeseen injuries to most of the running back room, the 5-foot-11 redshirt freshman has started to see more playing time. This season, Daniels has 17 carries for 72 yards and one touchdown, which came in the 23-21 win against Mississippi State. In last week’s loss to Georgia, Daniels served as Florida’s primary backup, playing 15 snaps with 11 on offense and the other four on special teams. Daniels ran the ball six times for 20 yards.
Florida’s season has not gone as intended at 3-5 and needing three wins in its final four games to keep bowl game hopes alive. The Gators have not lost each other within the locker room, despite the on-the-field results not showing. Daniels believes that the relationships built within the program will help bridge this team to the postseason.
“When you go through hard times, it really shows how much a team is together. And I feel like, through the hard times, we have stuck together throughout the good and the bad,” Daniels said to WRUF’s Kevin Winter on Gator Gameday. “Just knowing that your brother’s going to give you his all, all the time. It just makes you more calm with yourself, and just be able to be like, OK, he’s going to fight for me, I’ll fight for him.”
Florida is in Lexington, Ky., for the second leg of a three-game road trip and faces longtime SEC East rival Kentucky tonight at 7:30 (98.1-FM/AM-850 WRUF) in a must-win game. Expect Daniels to serve as Baugh’s backup for the second week in a row, as the two second-year backs look to propel the Gators’ ground game.
After playing in an emotional game like Georgia and now turning around to play Kentucky, it may be difficult to find any motivation or emotions for this one. Daniels thinks that in order to have success in a true road environment, the Gators need to stick together and stay the course.
“We just have to create our own juice. We can’t when a bad play happens or when we get down on ourselves, we can’t let that negative play like affect our play,” Daniels said. “I feel like just going forward, we just have to go and create our juice and stay together.”
Category: College Football, Feature Sports News, Gators Football, SEC
