THE STRONG MAN : ASU’s McDaniel Has Coaches Agreeing: He’s One of the Best Linemen in Pac-10

UCLA doesn’t know exactly what to expect from Arizona State’s offense in their Pacific 10 football game Saturday at Tempe, Ariz. No one even knows for sure who the starting quarterback will be.

But one thing is certain--the Sun Devils will run the ball twice as much as they pass it, and clearing the way will be what UCLA Coach Terry Donahue considers the best offensive line in the conference, starring one of the best offensive linemen.

Randall McDaniel, Arizona State’s 6-foot 5-inch, 274-pound senior guard from little Avondale, Ariz., was getting rave reviews from Donahue long before the coaches started trading compliments this week.

“He has it all,” Donahue said this week. “Arizona State asked me about him for some publicity they were doing before the season began, and I made a very strong, flattering statement.”

Indeed, here is what Donahue had to say on the cassette tape that the Arizona State sports information office sent out touting McDaniel for the Outland Trophy:

“Randall probably is as good an offensive lineman as there is in the conference. Period. End of story. He’s a quick, aggressive player. He has excellent technique. He’s a good pass protector. He really has all of the ingredients that good, big-time linemen have. He’s certainly All-Conference and probably All-American.”

USC Coach Larry Smith said: “When we were at Arizona, we recruited Randall, and let me tell you, he’s an outstanding football player and an outstanding young person. . . . We recruited him as a tight end. The Sun Devils took him and made him a pulling guard--which was a very wise choice.

“When I watch him, he reminds me so much of when I was coaching at Michigan. I had Reggie McKenzie. Randall is very much like him.”

Oregon Coach Rich Brooks: “Arizona State’s success last year was directly related to what they did on the offensive line, running the ball and protecting the quarterback, and McDaniel certainly was the focal point in that.”

Washington Coach Don James, Stanford Coach Jack Elway and, of course, Arizona State Coach John Cooper add their words of praise. And then there are the opinions of the pro scouts.

New York Jets scout Mark Hickey: “We feel Randall has all the qualities we look for in an offensive linemen. He’s big, he’s fast, he’s intelligent, he’s quick and he has excellent work habits. He’s an excellent citizen. . . . Certainly he has the capability of coming in and playing in the NFL as long as he’s physically able.”

Gil Brandt of the Dallas Cowboys: “He has the ability to control his opponents in both run and pass situations, which is very unique. He’s a player that competes 100% on every play, no matter what the score or who the opponent is. You will never find Randall McDaniel loafing.”

McDaniel’s position coach at ASU, Tom Freeman, said: “He is an absolute phenom as an athlete. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better offensive linemen. I’ve certainly never coached one better.”

And the strength coach, Tim McClellan, tells how McDaniel was “just a 220-pound skinny tight end” when he arrived on campus, and how he’s different from other linemen around the country who have added 50 pounds of muscle because McDaniel “was, is and always will be somebody who never uses steroids.”

In fact, McDaniel is a two-time national collegiate champion in American Drug-Free Powerlifting Assn. competition. He set a collegiate record with a 620-pound dead lift.

McClellen can think of two instances in which McDaniel amazed him. He once saw McDaniel pick up a 100-pound weight plate with one hand. And he also saw McDaniel, walking through the recreational gym in full football gear--shoulder pads, helmet and all--stop, pick up a basketball and, from a standing start, jump up and do a 360-degree turn on a slam dunk.

Or so the story goes. Yes, McDaniel is something of a legend around Tempe.

Cooper’s favorite McDaniel story demonstrates not his athletic prowess, but his humanity and humility. Cooper tells of seeing McDaniel going from locker to locker long after a game ended, picking up the sticks of gum that some of the other players had not used during the game and not even cared to shove in their pockets.

Cooper asked him why he was bothering and McDaniel told him that his little brothers and sisters would consider that gum quite a treat.

One of his four siblings, Kerry McDaniel, now gets his own gum. He’s a freshman on the Arizona State defense.

This week, McDaniel isn’t dunking basketballs or going for weightlifting records. He’s concentrating all of his efforts on preparing for UCLA.

He’s calling the game against the Bruins Saturday the biggest challenge of the year, and this year the Sun Devils played Nebraska, too.

McDaniel said Thursday that he was especially concerned about the Bruins’ team speed defensively. “They have exceptional speed, and that’s going to make it a big challenge for us,” he said.

“If we’re going to beat UCLA, we’ll have to almost play near-perfect. We will have to do almost everything right.

“We’ll have to play the best game we’ve played since I’ve been here.”

‘We feel Randall has all the qualities we look for in an offensive linemen. He’s big, he’s fast, he’s intelligent, he’s quick and he has excellent work habits. He’s an excellent citizen.’