LSU senior cornerback Travis Daniels is known for two things around Baton Rouge and campus.
One is his heroics in the 2001 Southeastern Conference Championship when Daniels voluntarily gave up a redshirt year and helped LSU preserve its upset win over Tennessee and advance to the Sugar Bowl.
The other is his dreadlocks. Or was his dreadlocks.
Daniels, who has sported the dreadlock look since arriving at LSU in 2001, recently shaved them off when he went home to Hollywood, Fla., over the Spring Break holiday.
“I got tired of washing it every day,” Daniels said. “My momma’s been wanting me to cut it for like two years. I went home and saw her and told her I was going to the barber to get my hair lined up. I came back with [the dreadlocks] off and she didn’t even know who I was.”
Anonymity is something Daniels is used to.
Despite starting all 14 games last year with 58 tackles, 26 pass breakups and two interceptions, his All-American teammate and the Tigers’ other starting cornerback Corey Webster is the man who gets all the press. After all, Webster has 14 interceptions in two years of playing cornerback and will most likely be a high draft pick in the 2005 NFL Draft.
But being under the radar is something Daniels said he relishes. Even if it means more balls are being thrown his way because teams want to stay away from Webster and his ball-hawking skills.
“I think some of the teams were trying to stay away from him and come get me more,” Daniels said. “I think that’s normal. If Deion Sanders is on one side, you don’t want to throw to his side because you already know what he’s going to do. And Corey covers people like that. So teams figure this guy here, we don’t really know too much about him so let’s try him and see what we can get.”
One person who knows Daniels and his talents very well is LSU coach Nick Saban. Daniels can play every position in the defensive secondary and Saban considers that ability to be invaluable.
“Travis really plays with a lot of consistency,” Saban said. “He probably has a better ability to take his knowledge to the field in terms of his execution and technique more consistency than most players. That’s helped him become a very effective player.
“And we’ve moved him around a lot. He has played both safeties in sub, safety in regular, star and money (safety positions in different alignments) and he plays everything. And he still makes fewer mental errors than most guys who aren’t being moved around.”
Daniels said playing all those positions is actually an advantage because he knows where everyone is supposed to be in every alignment.
“It’s more of me knowing where everyone else is going to be positioned at,” Daniels said on his ability to play a lot of positions. “If I’m at star, I know the safety is going to be inside or I know where the linebacker is going to be rotating. If I know where everybody else is going to be, that helps me know where I need to be.”
Teammate and fellow cornerback Ronnie Prude knows how valuable Daniels is. He said he is impressed by Daniels’ ability to stay consistent everywhere he plays.
“He’s a very competitive guy,” Prude said. “He knows every position on the field as well as corner. He’s a great cornerback, but he can switch to safety and star with no problem.”
Daniels said as long as the Tigers keep on winning, he has no problem sitting in the wings and toiling in anonymity.
With his new look, he said a lot of people have not recognized him since returning to school after Spring Break.
“Everybody around school looks at me like, ‘Is that really him?” Daniels said. “My teacher even came up to me yesterday and was like ‘Excuse me, who are you?’ And I said ‘Travis.’ And she was just talking to the class about not taking her class seriously enough and she walked by me and didn’t recognize my face.”
If things stay true to form, Daniels will be known sooner or later and LSU’s defensive backfield will consist of two “star” corners.