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 12 months at Choate Rosemary Corridor preparatory faculty in Connecticut, he focused an Ivy League faculty 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 condominium, the host advised Henley a number of guys from the crew have 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, considered one of Mullen’s convention rivals, whose identify at all times appeared to seem subsequent to his within the native newspaper.
Mike McDaniel.
McDaniel had enrolled at Yale the 12 months earlier than and walked onto the soccer crew, the place former teammates and coaches advised ESPN he instantly displayed an acumen for the sport and skill to show that set him aside from his teammates.
“He was all ball. And I feel that from day one, he simply ate the stuff up,” stated former Yale quarterback Jeff Mroz, who performed with McDaniel from 2002 to 2005. “You may inform — both you might have a love for the sport or you do not. And it was apparent that Mike had an actual love for the sport. I feel that is sort of the foundation of what he is been in a position to construct off of.
“There is a ardour, there is a love, and if he will dedicate his life to it, he is acquired to be all-in. And Mike, from after I met him, he is at all times been all-in.”
All advised, McDaniel spent 4 years as a large receiver at Yale — two on the JV crew earlier than being elevated to varsity his junior 12 months. His identify could not present up within the Yale stat e-book, however McDaniel established himself as a frontrunner, a player-coach, a movie room guru and, pound-for-pound, one of many strongest gamers on the crew. He attended the varsity and continued his soccer dream as a participant, however shortly realized he was an extended shot to ever see the sphere.
“I spotted, live-speed, the entire thing that I have been on the journey for — wasn’t completely in attain,” McDaniel stated. “I instantly turned to the higher athletes and advised them issues that I noticed and thought, and fairly shortly had a pure means to convey issues in order that they might perceive. After which that sort of gave me a transition to have a spot on the soccer crew with out being a significant contributor [on the field].”
McDaniel labored his means up from being a Denver Broncos teaching intern in 2005, by way of 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 concentrated on ending the franchise’s quarter-century-long drought and not using a playoff victory, however his legacy at his alma mater lives on by way of the teammates, coaches and pals from his faculty 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 by way of a 40-minute routine within the grassy space simply exterior Yale’s Lapham Subject 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 observed Smith primarily “drop-stepped” after catching a ball on a comeback route, making certain at the least a number of yards after the catch. It was a basketball transfer however with clear proof of it engaged on the soccer discipline, McDaniel carried out it into his routine with Henley.
“Rod Smith would try this on a regular basis, and I simply observed, and it appeared like a drop step in basketball,” McDaniel stated. “So we began drilling that and that drill that I might do with Chandler earlier than the video games, after which finally we acquired the receiver coach to do it. That drill we nonetheless do right now [with the Dolphins].”
McDaniel additionally discovered a solution to prepare Henley’s eyes and calm any pregame nerves throughout these classes.
“He would run circles round me [throwing the ball] and I might catch the whole lot,” Henley stated. “It was simply this solution to do some little bit of a trance kind of deal to get your eyes proper. After which it was additionally a solution to sort of blur, distract your self from desirous about 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 roughly his concept to begin doing that, which I used to be joyful to do due to the entire nervous power factor.”
Their classes weren’t restricted to pregame.
After follow, teammates bear in mind seeing McDaniel run Henley by way of one other gauntlet of drills.
“I do bear in mind continually strolling by and being like, ‘What the hell are they doing?'” stated former Yale quarterback Alvin Cowan, who spent two seasons with McDaniel in 2003 and 2004. “Chandler could be on the bottom and in his pads, and Mike would throw him the ball, and Chandler could 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 stated the wideout made extra one-handed catches than anybody on the crew.
When Henley made a formidable 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 have 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 might line up sort of in a formation … and they’d run a play in gradual movement — actually miming gradual movement,” Cowan stated. “Chandler’s mouth could be shifting actually gradual, and they’d run the entire thing in gradual movement.
“After which they’d run it backwards, rewind it in gradual movement. It was virtually like a stage play. It was like they’d organized and orchestrated each motion and all people was shifting in gradual movement. And whenever you watched it, it was hilarious.”
McDaniel laughed when requested about his walk-through practices; he remembers these occasions fondly and acknowledges their affect right now.
“I bear in mind the identical feeling that I get teaching right now, the place I used to be making an attempt to give you issues that may higher software his imaginative and prescient within the recreation and affect the sport,” he stated. “And when there could be a catch that he was just a little extra aggressive on based mostly upon one thing related that we’re drilling, it will give me validation and objective.”
BEATING THE ODDS has lengthy been a driving power for McDaniel, which is why his lasting 4 seasons with the crew was such a formidable feat to these in this system.
Most walk-ons do not final greater than a 12 months. The thought of enjoying faculty soccer is alluring, however McDaniel’s coach at Yale, Jack Siedlecki, stated 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.
“Youngsters did not actually understand what the entire soccer expertise was,” Siedlecki stated. “Lots of people, I feel once they consider Ivy colleges, they suppose it is like Division III-level soccer — it is not. It is superb soccer, and you have to be a soccer participant.”
Siedlecki stated 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 horny candidate as a pupil that the varsity’s dean of admissions, Rick Shaw, pushed for Siedlecki to make room in this system.
“I imply he is 5-foot-8. I feel he [weighed] a few buck-40 and ran a 4.9 40 on a really sympathetic coach’s watch,” Siedlecki stated. “So I imply, in actuality, he wasn’t going to be a participant for us, however he was a child who wished to play soccer.”
As soon as on campus, McDaniel stated he by no means thought-about quitting the crew, regardless of realizing shortly he was an extended shot to ever see the sphere.
“I might been very well-versed in individuals telling me that I could not and I got here in,” he stated. “I used to be the smallest pupil on the crew 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 faculty world and simply being a freshman and no matter — I wasn’t going to exit that means.”
McDaniel stated proving the doubters incorrect fueled his dedication to serving to the crew in a non-playing function, and helped him stick it out the place so many others would have give up.
“Discovering alternative ways to contribute week in, week out distracted me from one thing that was by no means within the playing cards for me,” McDaniel stated. “I wasn’t going to go and give up, as a result of it wasn’t the formulation that acquired me there. So it was in all probability just a little too steep of an ambition, however that is how I might sort of operated my complete life. … When individuals 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 turn out to be recognized for making self-deprecating jokes about his measurement relative to his gamers. However his energy 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 crew 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 cause Mroz appeared as much as McDaniel.
“I’ve at all times admired his glutes,” Mroz stated 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 reworked himself into one of many strongest gamers on the crew, accounting for measurement, in accordance with Mroz.
His specialty, Mroz stated, was the Nordic curl or glute-hamstring increase — the place an individual kneels on each knees whereas a companion holds their ankles. The particular person 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 stated. “In all probability the one man on the crew that might try this. That was a reasonably cool bodily feat that I have not seen many individuals in a position to do.”
McDaniel stated he acquired 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 stated. “However I knew I needed to make a ton of positive aspects within the weight room.”
“HUMBLING” WAS HOW McDaniel described his two years on the JV crew. However the expertise proved an essential step on his eventual journey to turn out to be a coach.
Sophomores do not stay on JV. So in 12 months 2, as one of many oldest gamers on the crew, 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 at all times gotten into the ebbs and flows of soccer,” he stated. “Usually, gamers naturally get very reactionary to damaging stuff and it by no means made sense to me as a result of whenever 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 sort of encourage just a little bit in conditions the place guys have been sort of down. That stuff by no means ever acquired me down. I at all times noticed it as like, ‘All proper, the story’s greater in case you pull it off and are available again.'”
That willingness to teach 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.
“Now we have to drive mainly the size of the sphere to tie the sport up and attempt to power additional time,” former Yale extensive receiver Ron Benigno stated. “And there is a half the place we have to get a play to even get into with the ability to make a shot on the finish zone. So, we want in all probability like 15, 20 yards to achieve … [McDaniel] was actually in our coach’s ear screaming this play to run, as a result of even then, he is wanting from the sideline, and he can see one thing that may get us what we want.”
McDaniel’s loud suggestion labored.
Cowan accomplished a 19-yard move to Benigno to get the Bulldogs to the 22-yard line with 7 seconds remaining, and located Henley ultimately zone as time expired to tie the sport. Yale would finally win 27-24 in double additional time.
“I simply really feel like even at that age, he simply had a lot soccer data,” Benigno stated. “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 complete offense with 3,429 yards. However considered one of 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 stunned by the story.
It was sample habits for the undersized walk-on.
Throughout Yale’s season-opening 62-28 residence blowout win over Towson, McDaniel made one other loud suggestion from the sideline; this one wasn’t so properly acquired.
“You bought a 60,000-person stadium with possibly 10,000 individuals in it — so you may hear a number of issues,” Cowan stated. “We’re operating 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 reasonably 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 wanting again, he appreciates McDaniel’s angle.
“That early on, dude is already considering, ‘How can I assist the crew?'” Cowan stated. “And with the advantage of reflection, I feel that is what he is at all times been about, proper? How can I assist the crew, how can we win? And he at all times had an awesome soccer thoughts, the truth is, nearly as good or higher than a number of the folks that have been teaching.
“I bear in mind after the sport being like, who the f— does this man suppose he’s? Nicely, it seems that man’s the top coach of the Dolphins now, and possibly I ought to have listened to what the hell he was saying.”
