With the advent of NIL and the transfer portal college football today is a business more than ever and former Richmond Hill player Matt Daniel knows it as well as any player in the game.
Daniel is one of 28 Georgia Southern seniors who will be making their final appearance at 6 p.m. Saturday when the Eagles take on Appalachian State in a Sun Belt Conference game which could have major ramifications for both teams.
For the Eagles (7-4, 5-2), a win over the Mountaineers (5-5 3-4) coupled with a Marshall (8-3, 6-1) loss at James Madison (8-3, 4-3) would mean finishing first in the East Division and a conference championship matchup with West Division winner Louisiana (9-2, 6-1). App State needs a win to gain bowl eligibility.
Daniel is not only a player—he’s the holder on extra point and field goal attempts and backup punter—but he may be the only athlete in college football who also works in his school’s athletics business office.
A former wide receiver and punter at Richmond Hill High School, Daniel is one of the least known players on the Georgia Southern football team and he would prefer to keep it that way.
Daniel’s playing time is limited to less than a minute per game. If he has a gripe about lack of time on the field he has to take up with his offense not the coaching staff. For him to get on the field the Eagles must score.
“Our goal is to get the kick off in 1.25 seconds,” Daniel said. “It’s the blink of an eye, it’s extremely quick but it feels longer. My playing time is, obviously, extremely limited. It depends on us scoring points.”
The only way he is noticed by anyone other than his parents and friends is if he flubs a snap which results in a botched kick. So far in two seasons that, fortunately, hasn’t happened.
Using the 1.25 seconds goal as a measuring stick Daniel is coming off his busiest game of the year. In last Saturday’s 26-6 win at Coastal Carolina the Eagles had seven extra point and/or field goal attempts. Total playing time: 8.5 seconds.
As to the other side of his Georgia Southern career Daniel, a sixth-year senior who is currently in graduate school pursuing an MBA, puts in time as an employee in the athletic department’s business office. He was hired by former athletic director Jared Benko.
“Matt is a very impressive young man,” said Benko, who recently left GS to become Deputy Athletic Director at Auburn. “He’s got a bright future ahead of him. Early on he wanted to talk to me about a career in sports and had the instinct and initiative to come and ask how he could look at a career.
“I’ve been in college athletics for 24 years and never had a student athlete also serve as a GA in our office,” Benko said. “It tells you the special kind of young man he is both athletically and being able to manage the time demands of being a student-athlete at a premier football program but also the demands of being a graduate student along with taking on full-time responsibilities in the business office.
“It speaks to just how he is; the environment in which he’s learned not only under Coach (Clay) Helton but going back to his high school days at Richmond Hill.”
Daniel went to West Virginia University as a preferred walkon but found it not to his liking and transferred to Georgia Southern where his parents, Dallas and Mary Ellen, had gone to school.
When he came to Georgia Southern, his football career was put on hold when walkon tryouts were cancelled due to COVID. The following season (2021) he was a backup wide receiver and holder.
The following year he was a scout team receiver in a chaotic 3-9 season that saw Coach Chad Lunsford get fired and Helton hired.
He got a shot at wide receiver in Helton’s first spring but wound up being asked to be the holder for PATs and field goals. That was fine with Daniel.
“By that time, I had fallen back in love with the game,” Daniel said. “I was willing to play on the scout team, all that stuff. Anything to help the team. At the end of the season, I thought I was done but they asked me to come back and I was going to go to graduate school. So here I am.”
Being a holder is not something just anyone can do, Daniel said.
“There’s a skill to it,” Daniel said. “It takes consistency and I’m consistent. My kicker trusts me to do my job, make sure the ball is where it needs to be, laces out. He can’t see the laces.
“Obviously you have to have good hands which, having played wide receiver helps me, because you have to catch it in the air. You don’t know where the snap is going to be although I trust my snapper but sometimes things can go wrong. In that case you’ve got to keep your composure, get the ball down and give your kicker the best option to make his kick.”