Student-Athlete Alumni Spotlight: Danny Stubbs
Sept. 9, 2003
Dress for Success – visit Hurricane Headquarters
DANIEL STUBBS: Class of 1988
“J.J. Convinced Me to Put My Hand on theGround and That Was It…”
By: Tracy Gale
Coral Gables, Fla. (www.hurricanesports.com) — – Danny Stubbs is known for many things, like the all-time UM sack record, the career assist record and an incredibly deep voice. What isn’t known is how his voice played a role in his coming to UM.
“My father and I both had these low voices and in comes Coach Schnellenberger to recruit me as a linebacker for the Hurricanes,” he said. “The three of us are sitting there in my family’s living room, each of us trying to talk lower than the other. My mom loved it.”
Heavily recruited coming out of high school in both basketball and football, Danny was considering major programs throughout the eastern U.S. He took recruiting trips to Syracuse, Maryland and the University of Miami.
“I came down in January 1983 for my recruiting trip. It was 70 degrees. [Former linebacker] Coach Olivadotti told me it was like that all year round.”
Tom Olivadotti, known as “Coach O” to one and all, was, like Stubbs, a native of New Jersey. He stressed the family atmosphere at UM. Coming from a close-knit family the young Stubbs was impressed.
“Lenny Moore was my player-host when I came down. He was a good guy, he showed me around. I liked the fact that the UM was a city-environment. The other schools I was considering were all rural environments.”
Still, Danny didn’t end his visit to Coral Gables dead sold on coming here. He had his official visit to Maryland still to take.
“On my Maryland visit I go in for my one-on-one with [then head] Coach Bobby Ross. I sit down and he has to look at his appointment sheet to know who I am. He didn’t know my name. I thought about the difference at Miami, and how Coach O kept saying ‘you’ll be part of the family here.’ No way was I going to Maryland after that. And besides, my mom just loved Schnellenberger so I signed with UM.”
Arriving on campus in August 1983, Danny braced himself for the intense competition and heat of two-a-days.
“First of all, Coach O lied,” Danny laughs, “it was definitely not 70 degrees all year-round! It was hot as ever. If I think about that first August practice I remember two things: all of the coaches yelling at us all the time, and the heat! Actually I remember three things: we had an offensive lineman named Milton Redwine. O-line Coach [Christ] Vagotis was yelling, just really getting on him during practice. And Milton is saying, ‘Coach, it’s too hot out here,’ but Vagotis kept screaming at him. Well, Milton was really, really hot. He pulled down his shorts, took off his jersey, and was standing there on the practice field in next to nothing. In front of the entire team and the media, Vagotis turns around and there’s Milton with his shorts pulled down.”
Danny was red-shirted his freshman year. He practiced hard, went to class, to team meetings and did everything he was supposed to do. What he was not excited about, ever, was working out in the weight room.
“I hate lifting weights. I always have. My first strength coach at UM was Ray Ganong. He was a really good guy. We were required to put in strength-training time. Ganong developed this lifting routine that could have a player in and out of the weight room in under a half hour. Other players would try it and end up puking their guts out. Me, I was just happy to get in there and get out in 25 minutes.”
After the miracle season of 1983, the intensity and excitement going in to 1984’s spring practice was extremely high. The buzz around campus and throughout Miami was all about ‘Canes football. Danny was moved from outside to inside linebacker. He was excited about moving up the depth chart and into some serious playing time.
“We’d scrimmage during practice, and on weekends we’d have our ‘bowl’ game-we called them ‘toilet bowls.’ You know when you’re moving up in the coaches’ eyes and in your teammates’ eyes. You can tell in practice how you’re doing, and you know your name is going to move up the chart.”
A funny thing happened on Danny’s way to playing for Coach Schnellenberger: the Hurricanes won their first national title in 1983 and the coach ended up leaving UM for a head coaching job in the new USFL. Sam Jankovich, UM’s athletic director at the time, picked a little known coach from the Big-8, Oklahoma State Coach Jimmy Johnson. Big changes were in store for the UM football program and for Danny’s career.
“J.J. watched me intently during spring drills, he wanted me to switch positions, go to the D-line. Well one day he convinces me to put my hand down [in the defensive end stance] and that was that. I loved it! No more linebacking–I switched to defensive end.”
When spring ball ended Danny couldn’t wait for the 1984 season. That summer he went home to New Jersey, and a few days later an envelope arrived with his summer running schedule.
“I stayed in Miami for the summer only once, after my freshman year. I didn’t need to stay in town to go to summer school; I always had the credits and the grades. I wanted to go home! So every year Coach Ganong and then later Coach Foran would send me my running and conditioning schedule, and I would follow that, religiously. Luckily I was blessed with the ability to run. Guess it made up for my inability to stand being in the weight room.”
The lack of power lifting didn’t hurt Danny’s arm strength or physical stamina any, because he led the Hurricanes in sacks each year for the next three years.
In his sophomore year Danny had 12 sacks, becoming a force the last half of the season when he posted at least one in each of the last five games. By his junior year, awards started piling up as Danny powered through for 17 sacks and 97 tackles, 49 of them solo. His senior year teams were keeping away from the dangerous left side, but he still managed to record 10.5 sacks.
Along with the All-American honors from the AP, UPI and a host of other post-season accolades, Danny earned something else after his senior season: his bachelor’s degree. He majored in criminal justice and considered going to law school.
“My parents really stressed education. Academics were first and foremost with them. My dad was a mechanic so people think I know something about cars, but I don’t. I can’t fix anything on a car–it’s just ridiculous! Every time I’d hang out around my dad when he was working on a car he’d say ‘go read a book.’ School was really important to my parents, and to me.”
In the spring of 1988 Danny participated in the mating dance all highly rated pro prospects participate in. Before he was drafted in the second round by the San Francisco 49ers Danny played in the Japan Bowl, went to the combines and sat through numerous interviews with NFL clubs.
“I did the meat market, yeah definitely. All of the workouts, getting measured and timed. I went to the Japan Bowl too. That was funny. Our coach there was Lou Holtz, who was then Notre Dame’s coach. There were three Hurricanes on the defense, me, George Mira and Bennie Blades. We were there yelling at each other on the field, changing coverages. We get off the field and Holtz tells us how he liked the yelling and the communication we had. We shut out Notre Dame that season, 24-0. Now all of the sudden he liked us as football players because everyone else was quiet and we were going crazy out there.”
Danny says NFL draft day was tough for him, as it is for many anxious college players waiting to see when and where they were drafted.
“I was definitely surprised by where I went in the draft. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t. But you know what? I got the best deal. I ended up playing for the best organization in football. Everybody wants to be part of the 49ers organization; they are a class act all the way. I signed pretty quickly and got in to camp without missing too much time. I got along great with Coach [Bill] Walsh. He’d talk about anything, not just football. Coach Walsh was very laid back. After hyper J.J. this was really a switch!”
Asked if it was a hard transition from college to the NFL Danny says no.
“By this point, 1987, 1988, we started having a lot of ‘Canes drafted, so these guys would come by in the off-season and tell us what to expect-they’d talk about the prep work and the mental aspect. I was happy because I found out you didn’t wear pads for most practices, which was great news.”
In addition to the two Super Bowl rings he won with San Francisco, Danny is tied for 2nd place in the Super Bowl record books with three sacks. After 11 years in the NFL he retired in 1999. He is now able to attend many UM home games and bowl games.
“I watch them play now and just complain! I am not the easiest person to watch a Hurricane football game with. I was on the sidelines at the Sugar Bowl against Florida a few years ago and I was going nuts because our defense looked flat in the first half.”
To Danny one thing really stands out between today’s ‘Canes and the teams he played on in the 1980s is what happens when a player comes off the field.
“When I played we’d get to the sideline and start cussing and trying to rile everybody up. We were constantly yelling at each other and getting in each other’s face. Now the guys come to the sidelines and they are getting coached and everything is very calm.”
Since he is retired from the NFL and lives full time in Florida, Danny also has a chance to see more of his former Hurricane teammates.
“We are all family, no matter how long it’s been since you’ve seen a guy, you’re family. Besides playing football together we all used to hang out. We’d play daily pickup basketball games after practice or class…when we get together now they all still bust my chops just like in college.”
Every once in a while a UM football game from his era will run on ESPN Classic, and Danny enjoys watching these games. When he sees himself from 15 years ago, Danny says, “I think I look and act like a thug!”
He never sees the 1986 Fiesta Bowl game replay however. This isn’t by choice. Danny wants to see it now; he just never catches it on TV. He was a junior on the 1986 Hurricanes, which is widely regarded as one of the best teams in the history of college football. The offense and defense led the nation in many statistical categories and the roster featured a host of future NFL stars.
“We were going out there to win a game. As a team we were taking this game very seriously. We lost the ’85 Sugar Bowl [to Tennessee] and we were just of a mindset that this was war, and we were the army coming in to take care of business.”
In honor of his sack total that year Danny was commissioned as a ’17-star general’ in that team which flew to Tempe. The media had a field day over the ‘Canes attitude, image and fatigues, and the Fiesta Bowl colored the perception of the UM football program for years to come.
“The game itself was set up that way-Good Paterno and his Nittany Lions vs. Brash J.J. and his Outlaw Canes. The Fiesta Bowl pulled off this big deal to hold a #1 against #2 game a day after all of the other bowls were done and it was the most hyped game, ever. This game put the Fiesta Bowl on the map. It was huge. So here we are, we went through the regular season just wrecking everybody and we get off the plane ready for business. We weren’t there to listen to mariachi bands or to make nice at functions with the Penn State team, we were there for one reason.”
Even though the ‘Canes defense held Penn State to less than 200 total yards and only eight first downs, the Canes lost the game. However, in Danny’s senior season UM went undefeated and won the Orange Bowl for their second national championship. Nowadays he really enjoys getting back to UM, not only to the athletic department but also to the entire campus.
“I am always amazed at the growth of the campus. I was so proud to see that big sign at the School of Business, which says how Bernie [Kosar] is donating the money to build the new building. The UM campus is such an amazing place. I am proud of how much money was actually spent on my education. You first come to college because you are getting a free ride. You don’t realize how great it is to be in an academic environment, and even better, a private university setting. I look at the costs of going to school and the cost of providing the services and programs-the tutoring, the academic counseling and support, the whole infrastructure in place-and I can’t imagine how an athlete coming here could ever not earn their degree.”
Now that football has ended Danny directs the same energy and commitment toward his company, CSS Test Inc. CSS provides alcohol and drug testing services, including tests for Oxycontin, Ecstasy and marijuana.
“I had professors at UM who told me that I could make money with a criminal justice degree, and I didn’t believe them,” Danny remembers. “I majored in criminal justice because I was interested in it and because down the road I was thinking about going to law school. But you can be an entrepreneur too. One of my professors told me to build and market a better mousetrap.
We also do background checks in addition to drug testing–we are a complete service. We have contracts with Florida’s Department of Corrections and we are working with the Juvenile Justice division, too.”
CSS Test, Inc. has offices in Haddonfield, New Jersey and Boca Raton, Florida, which is where Danny calls home.
Reflecting on his current business ventures and his completed football career, Danny is even more appreciative now of his UM experience than he was when he signed his letter of intent 20 years ago.
“I realize your college education is just the foundation for everything. It has made everything since possible, like the football career I had and the traveling I’ve been able to do. First in college and then in pro ball, traveling makes you more well rounded. I saw the country and traveled overseas, and not because of a commitment to Uncle Sam. The professional opportunities and choices I have had have all been possible because of my education. Education was always stressed by my parents, and they couldn’t have been more right about anything.”
For a man with two national championship rings, two Super Bowl rings and an expanding corporate presence, Danny Stubbs knows what it takes to win. For him it started with a low-voice contest in his living room and signing a letter of intent to play ball at a certain university in Coral Gables. With his drive to succeed, where it ends is wherever Danny decides the goal line is.
