Show up to a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga practice these days, and there’s a pretty good chance you’ll see defensive end Orlando Daniels smiling.
The explanation could be as simple as Daniels just being happy doing what he’s doing — playing football — but it could also be because he feels at home.
In a fledgling football career that has kept him on the move so far, he feels stable.
The 6-foot-5, 239-pounder from Canton, Michigan, landed at UTC this summer after playing his first two college seasons at Albion, an NCAA Division III program in his home state. Daniels accumulated 13.5 tackles for loss and 9.5 sacks in just 18 games for the Britons, then entered the transfer portal.
He was set to compete not only in Division I but the upper-tier Football Bowl Subdivision when he signed with Arkansas State and former Tennessee coach Butch Jones, but left after spring practices as the Red Wolves had three different defensive line coaches in the seven months Daniels was part of the Sun Belt Conference program.