GoldandBlack.com's 20-year Purdue player draft: Pick No. 79
To help commemorate the 20-year anniversary of Purdue's magical turnaround 1997 season, GoldandBlack.com's staff will break up the rosters and select the best players to wear a Boilermaker uniform since Coach Joe Tiller's first season on the sidelines.
GoldandBlack.com's 20-year Purdue player draft will have 100 players chosen — two picks each weekday over 10 weeks. Boilermakers who were on Purdue rosters between 1997-2017 are eligible for selection. The draft order is Alan Karpick, Stacy Clardie, Kyle Charters and Brian Neubert.
Charters picks up the highest value of the draft yet ...
Draft ticker: Nos. 1-78
I've been sitting on this pick for, oh, about the last 20 selections or so, but don't think I can wait any longer.
And Chris Daniels going at No. 79, lower than many would have thought, is by no means a lessening of his value to the Boilermakers during his tenure. Because his value was off the charts. The 6-foot-3, 220-pounder put together one of the greatest seasons in NCAA history as a senior in 1999, catching a still-standing Big Ten-record 121 receptions for 1,236 yards (still the second-best in Purdue history) and seven touchdowns. He was named first-team All-Big Ten and third-team All-American.
But his performance vs. Michigan State that season boarders on the ridiculous, even in the "basketball on grass" era of the late 90s, when he caught Big Ten records of 21 passes for 301 yards in the Boilermakers' 52-28 upset of the No. 5 Spartans.
Not blessed with outstanding top-end speed, Daniels excelled in other ways: He was an outstanding route runner, able to create space by precisely getting in and out of cuts, and being where Drew Brees expected when he expected him. And after the catch, Daniels was subtly quick, able to pick up yardage not by outrunning defenders but by out-smarting and out-maneuvering them.
Daniels fits in perfectly with my offense, with Brian Alford and Dustin Keller the deep threats; Randall Lane working the intermediate routes; and Daniels highly effective underneath. And Kyle Orton can sling it.
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