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Marcel Louis-Jacques
Years earlier than he was an assistant quarterbacks coach for the Miami Dolphins, Chandler Henley was an all-state extensive receiver at Mullen Excessive Faculty in Colorado. After a yr at Choate Rosemary Corridor preparatory college in Connecticut, he focused an Ivy League college to proceed his enjoying profession.
He visited Yale in January 2002 and was assigned to a freshman host. Whereas enjoying video video games in his residence, the host informed Henley a couple of guys from the staff had been coming over. One of many gamers who walked in was instantly acquainted to Henley — an undersized extensive receiver from Colorado’s Smoky Hill Excessive Faculty, one in all Mullen’s convention rivals, whose title all the time appeared to look subsequent to his within the native newspaper.
Mike McDaniel.
McDaniel had enrolled at Yale the yr earlier than and walked onto the soccer staff, the place former teammates and coaches informed ESPN he instantly displayed an acumen for the sport and talent to show that set him aside from his teammates.
“He was all ball. And I believe that from day one, he simply ate the stuff up,” mentioned former Yale quarterback Jeff Mroz, who performed with McDaniel from 2002 to 2005. “You may inform — both you have got a love for the sport or you do not. And it was apparent that Mike had an actual love for the sport. I believe that is form of the foundation of what he is been capable of construct off of.
“There is a ardour, there is a love, and if he’ll dedicate his life to it, he is obtained to be all-in. And Mike, from after I met him, he is all the time been all-in.”
All informed, McDaniel spent 4 years as a large receiver at Yale — two on the JV staff earlier than being elevated to varsity his junior yr. His title could not present up within the Yale stat e book, however McDaniel established himself as a pacesetter, a player-coach, a movie room guru and, pound-for-pound, one of many strongest gamers on the staff. He attended the college and continued his soccer dream as a participant, however shortly realized he was a protracted shot to ever see the sector.
“I noticed, live-speed, the entire thing that I have been on the journey for — wasn’t completely in attain,” McDaniel mentioned. “I instantly turned to the higher athletes and informed them issues that I noticed and thought, and fairly shortly had a pure capacity to convey issues in order that they might perceive. After which that form of gave me a transition to have a spot on the soccer staff with out being a significant contributor [on the field].”
McDaniel labored his means up from being a Denver Broncos teaching intern in 2005, via stints with the Houston Texans, Cleveland Browns, Washington, Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers and even the Sacramento Mountain Lions of the United Soccer League.
As coach of the Miami Dolphins since 2022, McDaniel is targeted on ending the franchise’s quarter-century-long drought with no playoff victory, however his legacy at his alma mater lives on via the teammates, coaches and buddies from his school profession. Listed below are a few of their favourite tales.
MCDANIEL’S COACHING CAREER did not start throughout an internship with the Broncos in 2005. As a substitute, it was simply exterior Yale’s soccer fieldhouse close to the Walter Camp Memorial, devoted to “The Father of American Soccer.”
Henley, who graduated as Yale’s third-all-time main receiver, credit McDaniel for serving to him obtain that success. Earlier than every recreation throughout his senior season in 2004, McDaniel ran Henley via a 40-minute routine within the grassy space simply exterior Yale’s Lapham Discipline Home, roughly 2 miles from the Yale campus in New Haven, Connecticut. The exercise included drill work McDaniel picked up by watching movie of the Broncos.
One particular drill was impressed by former Broncos extensive receiver Rod Smith.
Whereas watching movie, McDaniel seen Smith basically “drop-stepped” after catching a ball on a comeback route, making certain a minimum of a couple of yards after the catch. It was a basketball transfer however with clear proof of it engaged on the soccer subject, McDaniel carried out it into his routine with Henley.
“Rod Smith would try this on a regular basis, and I simply seen, and it regarded like a drop step in basketball,” McDaniel mentioned. “So we began drilling that and that drill that I’d do with Chandler earlier than the video games, after which ultimately we obtained the receiver coach to do it. That drill we nonetheless do at the moment [with the Dolphins].”
McDaniel additionally discovered a technique to practice Henley’s eyes and calm any pregame nerves throughout these periods.
“He would run circles round me [throwing the ball] and I’d catch every thing,” Henley mentioned. “It was simply this technique to do some little bit of a trance kind of deal to get your eyes proper. After which it was additionally a technique to form of blur, distract your self from fascinated by the sport and all that.
“I used to be like, I am simply targeted on this soccer proper now. Lemme catch the primary white stripe again and again and over and over and over. And that was kind of his concept to start out doing that, which I used to be completely satisfied to do due to the entire nervous power factor.”
Their periods weren’t restricted to pregame.
After observe, teammates bear in mind seeing McDaniel run Henley via one other gauntlet of drills.
“I do bear in mind always strolling by and being like, ‘What the hell are they doing?'” mentioned former Yale quarterback Alvin Cowan, who spent two seasons with McDaniel in 2003 and 2004. “Chandler can be on the bottom and in his pads, and Mike would throw him the ball, and Chandler can be engaged on one-handed catches and s—. It was like, ‘The place is that this recreation oriented? How is that this going to make Chandler a greater soccer participant?'”
However the finish justified McDaniel’s unorthodox means.
Henley was Yale’s “Odell Beckham Jr.,” in accordance with Cowan, who mentioned the wideout made extra one-handed catches than anybody on the staff.
When Henley made a powerful game-tying landing catch towards Princeton in 2003, Cowan started to see the larger image.
“Chandler went up and he high-pointed that factor and twisted his physique, which is all to say … possibly they did know what they had been doing,” Cowan laughed. “Possibly Mike’s coaching helped Chandler make that catch that gained us that recreation — I do not know. “I simply bear in mind considering, ‘I do not know what the hell they’re doing.'”
One other memorable function of the work McDaniel did with Henley was their overly exaggerated walk-throughs the day earlier than video games.
“They’d line up form of in a formation … and they might run a play in sluggish movement — actually miming sluggish movement,” Cowan mentioned. “Chandler’s mouth can be transferring actually sluggish, and they might run the entire thing in sluggish movement.
“After which they’d run it backwards, rewind it in sluggish movement. It was nearly like a stage play. It was like that they had organized and orchestrated each motion and all people was transferring in sluggish movement. And once you watched it, it was hilarious.”
McDaniel laughed when requested about his walk-through practices; he remembers these instances fondly and acknowledges their affect at the moment.
“I bear in mind the identical feeling that I get teaching at the moment, the place I used to be attempting to provide you with issues that may higher software his imaginative and prescient within the recreation and affect the sport,” he mentioned. “And when there can be a catch that he was a bit extra aggressive on based mostly upon one thing related that we’re drilling, it could give me validation and goal.”
BEATING THE ODDS has lengthy been a driving power for McDaniel, which is why his lasting 4 seasons with the staff was such a powerful feat to these in this system.
Most walk-ons do not final greater than a yr. The thought of enjoying school soccer is alluring, however McDaniel’s coach at Yale, Jack Siedlecki, mentioned many underestimate the workload of an Ivy League walk-on.
Additional complicating issues for McDaniel was the truth that his bodily limitations made him no slam dunk to be accepted into this system in any respect.
“Children did not actually understand what the entire soccer expertise was,” Siedlecki mentioned. “Lots of people, I believe once they consider Ivy colleges, they suppose it is like Division III-level soccer — it isn’t. It is excellent soccer, and you have to be a soccer participant.”
Siedlecki mentioned Yale’s program on the time was “very selective” with bringing on walk-ons, and after watching McDaniel’s highschool movie, he did not view him as a Yale-caliber soccer prospect. However McDaniel was such a beautiful candidate as a scholar that the college’s dean of admissions, Rick Shaw, pushed for Siedlecki to make room in this system.
“I imply he is 5-foot-8. I believe he [weighed] a couple of buck-40 and ran a 4.9 40 on a really sympathetic coach’s watch,” Siedlecki mentioned. “So I imply, in actuality, he wasn’t going to be a participant for us, however he was a child who needed to play soccer.”
As soon as on campus, McDaniel mentioned he by no means thought-about quitting the staff, regardless of realizing shortly he was a protracted shot to ever see the sector.
“I might been very well-versed in folks telling me that I could not and I got here in,” he mentioned. “I used to be the smallest scholar on the staff and actually the tradition shock of being a Colorado child, which is similar to being like a California child, after which going to the prep college world and simply being a freshman and no matter — I wasn’t going to exit that means.”
McDaniel mentioned proving the doubters flawed fueled his dedication to serving to the staff in a non-playing function, and helped him stick it out the place so many others would have give up.
“Discovering other ways to contribute week in, week out distracted me from one thing that was by no means within the playing cards for me,” McDaniel mentioned. “I wasn’t going to go and give up, as a result of it wasn’t the components that obtained me there. So it was in all probability a bit too steep of an ambition, however that is how I might form of operated my complete life. … When folks checked out me a sure means and was like, ‘Yeah, you are not going to do that.’ I am like, ‘thanks.'”
WITH THE DOLPHINS, McDaniel has change into recognized for making self-deprecating jokes about his measurement relative to his gamers. However his power throughout his enjoying days was one of many facets about his time at Yale that impressed his teammates probably the most.
At 6-foot-5, 225 kilos, Mroz had prototypical measurement for the quarterback place. He was a staff captain and Yale’s second-leading profession passer when he graduated (now seventh). There have been loads of causes for gamers to look as much as Mroz; there was a hyper-specific motive Mroz regarded as much as McDaniel.
“I’ve all the time admired his glutes,” Mroz mentioned with amusing.
McDaniel weighed 143 kilos when he enrolled at Yale, and instantly started a six-day-a-week coaching routine to assist him catch up bodily along with his friends.
By the point he graduated, McDaniel was up into the 180s and had remodeled himself into one of many strongest gamers on the staff, accounting for measurement, in accordance with Mroz.
His specialty, Mroz mentioned, was the Nordic curl or glute-hamstring increase — the place an individual kneels on each knees whereas a companion holds their ankles. The individual then lowers their higher physique to the bottom and raises themselves again to their authentic place, ideally with out utilizing their arms.
“Mike may go down and up with out touching the bottom along with his palms,” Mroz mentioned. “In all probability the one man on the staff that might try this. That was a fairly cool bodily feat that I have not seen many individuals capable of do.”
McDaniel mentioned he obtained so good, he may do it whereas holding a 45-pound plate.
“I by no means for one second ever even thought-about quitting [the team],” McDaniel mentioned. “However I knew I needed to make a ton of good points within the weight room.”
“HUMBLING” WAS HOW McDaniel described his two years on the JV staff. However the expertise proved an vital step on his eventual journey to change into a coach.
Sophomores do not stay on JV. So in Yr 2, as one of many oldest gamers on the staff, he took on a management function, which helped the youthful gamers higher acclimate to the faculty recreation and have become, as one former teammate described, the quasi-coach of the JV squad.
“I’ve all the time gotten into the ebbs and flows of soccer,” he mentioned. “Sometimes, gamers naturally get very reactionary to unfavorable stuff and it by no means made sense to me as a result of once you watch soccer, the ebbs and flows of each recreation, each winner has a down level in a recreation.
“So, I discovered it enjoyable to have the ability to form of encourage a bit bit in conditions the place guys had been form of down. That stuff by no means ever obtained me down. I all the time noticed it as like, ‘All proper, the story’s larger for those who pull it off and are available again.'”
That willingness to educate his teammates carried over as soon as he reached the varsity stage.
One such occasion occurred on a drive towards Princeton throughout his junior season. Yale trailed by seven factors and began a possible game-tying drive by itself 8-yard line with 1:08 remaining within the recreation.
“We’ve got to drive mainly the size of the sector to tie the sport up and attempt to power additional time,” former Yale extensive receiver Ron Benigno mentioned. “And there is a half the place we have to get a play to even get into having the ability to make a shot on the finish zone. So, we’d like in all probability like 15, 20 yards to realize … [McDaniel] was actually in our coach’s ear screaming this play to run, as a result of even then, he is trying from the sideline, and he can see one thing that may get us what we’d like.”
McDaniel’s loud suggestion labored.
Cowan accomplished a 19-yard cross to Benigno to get the Bulldogs to the 22-yard line with 7 seconds remaining, and located Henley in the long run zone as time expired to tie the sport. Yale would ultimately win 27-24 in double additional time.
“I simply really feel like even at that age, he simply had a lot soccer information,” Benigno mentioned. “It is no shock actually to anyone that knew him that he is gotten to the place he’s at this level.”
BY THE TIME he graduated, Cowan was Yale’s all-time chief in passing yards and passing touchdowns. His 2003 season set a faculty report for whole offense with 3,429 yards. However one in all his most vivid reminiscences of the season got here courtesy of McDaniel within the Bulldogs’ first recreation.
Cowan remembers each play of that Princeton drive; he would not bear in mind listening to McDaniel calling performs from the sideline however he wasn’t shocked by the story.
It was sample habits for the undersized walk-on.
Throughout Yale’s season-opening 62-28 house blowout win over Towson, McDaniel made one other loud suggestion from the sideline; this one wasn’t so nicely acquired.
“You bought a 60,000-person stadium with possibly 10,000 folks in it — so you may hear a couple of issues,” Cowan mentioned. “We’re working examine with me, which implies I mainly have the playbook at my disposal and I hear ‘Ohio! Ohio!’ I flip in a second of pause and look, and there is Mike telling me to run Ohio, which is a fairly base go-flat idea by a two receiver aspect. “I bear in mind considering on the time, ‘Who the f— is that this fourth-string extensive receiver yelling at me, the beginning quarterback, telling me what to run?'”
From Cowan’s perspective, it was infuriating for a walk-on receiver to inform him which performs to run throughout a recreation. However trying again, he appreciates McDaniel’s perspective.
“That early on, dude is already considering, ‘How can I assist the staff?'” Cowan mentioned. “And with the good thing about reflection, I believe that is what he is all the time been about, proper? How can I assist the staff, how can we win? And he all the time had a fantastic soccer thoughts, in truth, nearly as good or higher than among the people who had been teaching.
“I bear in mind after the sport being like, who the f— does this man suppose he’s? Properly, it seems that man’s the pinnacle coach of the Dolphins now, and possibly I ought to have listened to what the hell he was saying.”