MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — In dire need of cornerback help, West Virginia landed a commitment Tuesday from Mike Daniels of New York Globe Tech, a second-team junior college All-American last season after making seven interceptions.
The 6-foot, 200-pound Daniels, a Rival three-star prospect, holds offers from Arizona, Purdue, Kansas, New Mexico and Arkansas State. The Miami native told Rivals writer Keenan Cummings he planned to sign his national letter of intent early Wednesday.
“Daniels plays an extremely physical game at cornerback,” Cummings said. “He’s capable of sitting back and breaking on the ball and flashes good recovery speed. He’s capable of stepping up to get physical with receivers in bump-and-run coverage. Daniels has pretty good hips but he appears to lack the top-end speed you like to see displayed from a shutdown corner.”
Cornerbacks coach Brian Mitchell targeted Daniels and extended his first FBS scholarship offer last October.
Though Daniels becomes the fourth cornerback pledge in the 2016 class, West Virginia has holes at the position and is still pursuing one more.
Dodge City (Kan.) Community College prospect Elijah Battle, who flipped from WVU to Minnesota in December but wasn’t eligible to enroll early, is back on the market and projected to sign with the Mountaineers on Wednesday.
West Virginia must replace seniors Terrell Chestnut and Rick Rumph, along with NFL draft early entrant Daryl Worley. The top three corners on next season’s depth chart—Rasul Douglas, Miami transfer Antonio Crawford and Nana Kyeremeh—also are seniors who have only three FBS starts among them.
Watch Daniels’ sophomore highlight reel here.