Return to football wise for Daniel

In North Carolina, they played basketball, and Kengera Daniel was tall and figured he'd fit in fine.

These days, Daniel is an early enrollee on the Kentucky football team, a defensive end/outside linebacker hybrid who turned heads in spring practice with his size and athleticism and football IQ.

But as a freshman at Millbrook High School in Raleigh, N.C., Daniel -- a transplant from Florida who'd grown up playing football -- was ready to turn his back on the game that eventually would make his name.

"I was, like, 6-6," Daniel said. "I figured, 'I'm gonna learn how to dribble real quick and just play college basketball.'"

So he quit football and started playing basketball with his hoop-crazed Carolina classmates. A football assistant coach spotted him, and every day when Daniel walked by his classroom, the coach would make a pigskin recruiting pitch.

"And I was just like, 'Naaah. I doubt I ever play football again,'" Daniel said.

But it turns out, Daniel was really good at football.

He'd grown up playing the game and developing a knack for quickly learning plays. He could lock in on a coach's instructions and apply them on the field in short order. He grasped concepts in a hurry.

A year away from football made him realize basketball wasn't his thing.

"I realized I had much more talent playing football," Daniel said. "I was able to make a lot of plays."

So he gave in and tried out for the football team.

"I'm really glad, because he does everything you ask him to do," UK defensive line coach Jimmy Brumbaugh said. "The guy likes the game, he likes to be out there."

And he's pretty good out there.

As a senior at Millbrook, Daniel had 65 tackles and 19 sacks and drew recruiting interest from Alabama, Miami (Fla.), Michigan and many others before settling on Kentucky.

The 6-foot-6, 250-pound Daniel graduated early, enrolled in January and quickly began to show the coaching staff that he had even more to offer than physical tools that had drawn UK to him.

Kentucky knew Daniel was a good student and good person, defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot said, knew that he was long and athletic pass rusher but also had the size to hold up against the run.

"And then since he's been here, we've seen some good things from him in the fact that he also knows how to play," Eliot said. "He knows how to play football. So not only was he a good athlete for that position, but he's got some football savvy about him."

Brumbaugh said Daniel's best attribute is that he's "very, very smart."

When he arrived on campus, Daniel realized he'd need to be.

"In high school, our playbook -- we didn't really have a playbook, to be honest," Daniel said. "We just had a few plays we ran out of certain base formations and you just memorized them. Here, I have a playbook that's, like, huge. It's pretty thick."

But Daniel is a quick study.

He started spring practice at Kentucky's "Jack" outside linebacker spot, then quickly moved to defensive end, where he spent most of the spring. As practice wound down, though, he moved back to the Jack spot, a hybrid linebacker/end position he said he's likely to focus on over the summer.

"He's going to be a very good football player, for a guy that should be wrapping up high school right now," UK coach Mark Stoops said. "He really did a good job. It was really beneficial for him to be here and get the 15 practices in, and you can see him getting better and better. The weight room is going to really help him as he puts on more weight and more strength."

Stoops said he's "very pleased" with Daniel to this point. And that's not bad for a guy who four years ago was ready to walk away from football for good before that sophomore year change of heart.

"It worked out pretty well," Daniel said.