Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/200019
Upon Further Review todd D. burlage family rented was infested with rodents, cockroaches and hopelessness. That all changed in 1997 when Danny and Diane invested $130 into a burgeoning business called AdvoCare, a health and nutrition company. Through hard work and a gift for sales, the McDaniels have parlayed their modest investment from 16 years ago into an income today of almost $450,000 a month as the top national distributers in the AdvoCare network. Danny McDaniel used a fraction of his wealth to help found Bethel Dallas Church, where he is known as a transformational speaker, entrepreneur, pastor and one of the most successful businessmen in the Dallas metropolitan area. But before the McDaniels secured their mega-wealth, football was the fabric that held the family together, a perfect outlet for Cam to demonstrate a competitiveness that was already evident when he wasn't much bigger than a football. Following his dad's loss as an assistant coach for Austin Westlake High School in the 1994 Texas state championship game, 3-year-old Cam was so distraught, he cried the entire three-hour trip home from the Houston Astrodome. "I knew at that point something was going on here," Danny McDaniel said of Cam's loathe of losing. In a state loaded with great running backs and football talent, Cam McDaniel became the poster-player for overachievement. At 5-10 and 190 pounds — and with an "uninspiring" time of 4.53 seconds or so in the 40yard dash — McDaniel wasn't blessed with the natural physical gifts of a top-tier running back. But through hard work and commitment, the Coppell High School product managed to become the big-school Texas Player of the Year as a junior. Rated as a three-star player and about the 50th-best running back in the 2011 recruiting class, McDaniel didn't stand a chance of realizing his dream of playing for the home-state Texas Longhorns. His scholarship offers included Cincinnati, Iowa State, Minnesota and Tulsa — not the upper tier of traditional powers. Cam calls it God's will that Notre Dame even became involved in his recruitment, an opportunity that made his college choice an easy one. And barely two years after his arrival on campus, McDaniel is now the go-to running back for the Irish in clutch situations, though still retaining the humility he learned from spending some of his childhood in squalor. When asked last week about his overnight fame and dreamy good looks, McDaniel predictably deflected all attention away from himself. "I just want to honor my coaches," he said. "I want to honor my teammates with my play and my character off the field." … And apparently with his ridiculously smokin' hot looks on it. ✦ Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com