The Eagle Way to the Patriot Way

For the past 17 years, the New England Patriots stand alone as the NFL's gold standard. They've had 16 straight winning seasons and 14 division championships, including the last eight in a row. They've been to 11 AFC Championship Games over that time period, including the last six, with seven Super Bowl appearances.

Oh, there's also the five Super Bowl championships, including the most recent and two of the last three.

Part of the reason the Patriots are so successful is their ability to draft and develop their own roster. Their 2016 roster featured 27 players they drafted, including 12 starters. That doesn't include players like Malcolm Butler, who was an undrafted free agent, or Patrick Chung, who was drafted by New England but left once in free agency. There's no questioning the system or how it created success.

Deep within that infrastructure beats a Boston College heart. That's where DuJuan Daniels, who once helped change the perception and complexion of the Eagle football program, currently works as a national scout.

"I was the offensive coordinator at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis when I got a call from one of my good friends who was the linebackers coach in New England - Brian Flores," Daniels said. "I was godfather to his kids, and we had always communicated to each other about what we would do when our playing careers were over. Brian told me there was an entry level job with the Patriots and I was the only guy who he would recommend for that position. So I wound up getting an interview and a week later, I was hired as a scouting assistant, which is an entry level position. It was the right place at the right time with one of my best friends being my connection. Over 10 years later, we're both still there."

That Daniels is a part of a winning tradition is no surprise. Well before he was scouting college athletes to find the next cog in the Patriot machine, he was helping Boston College reestablish a winning culture. He arrived on campus in 1998 at a time when the Eagles lay dormant without a bowl berth in nearly five years.

After an 8-3 finish in 1994, including a 12-7 Aloha Bowl victory over Kansas State, BC's fortunes dipped. They hadn't had a winning season in the years since and hadn't so much as sniffed a postseason game. The Big East featured some of the nation's most ruggedly tough programs and games each year against Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Miami and West Virginia brought limited expectations.

All of that changed with Daniels' recruiting class. In 1999, his sophomore season, a different culture planted roots. After a 4-0 start to the season, a split with Temple and Pittsburgh left BC at 5-1. Following a 31-28 loss to Miami, the Eagles headed for the Carrier Dome and a date with the defending Big East champion Syracuse Orangemen. Playing as decided underdogs, Daniels helped BC shock college football's foundation with a 24-23 victory on the road.

"Personally, I remember to this day returning that kickoff 101 yards in the Carrier Dome against Syracuse," Daniels said. "We had come off a huge loss against a nationally-ranked Miami team. That play kind of jumpstarted us and got us over that hump in '99. We had become a legitimate bowl team."

With a kickoff return for a touchdown, the entire atmosphere surrounding the Eagles changed. BC rattled off wins over West Virginia and Notre Dame to break into the Top 25 for the first time since that Aloha Bowl season. Despite losing to second-ranked Virginia Tech and Colorado in the Insight.com Bowl, it laid the groundwork for the program's resurgence, a string of 12 straight bowl games that included an eight-game bowl winning streak.

"I had a chance to be around some outstanding coaches and mentors when I was at BC," Daniels said. "I still lean on them a lot now in my professional career. There were two graduate assistants in particular who are now coaching in the NFL. One is Matt Burke, who is now the defensive coordinator with the Miami Dolphins. The other was Sean Ryan, who is now the quarterbacks coach with the Houston Texans. I looked at the way those guys worked and thought, if I want to be successful, that's how I would have to do it. To reach the ultimate level in football, I had to do the grunt work, start at the bottom, and really work my way up."

It's an attitude that carried Daniels in his post-BC career. After graduation, Daniels wound up as the receivers coach at Graceland University, an NAIA school based in Lamoni, Iowa. Then he returned to Indianapolis as the offensive coordinator for Cathedral High School. Then came the call from Brian Flores, and Daniels' career in the NFL was off to its flying start.

Now a national scout with the Patriots, Daniels is seeing his years of investment in the game pay off. As the national scout for eastern schools, he provides secondary analysis for potential draft prospects.

"I'm going to every single school on the eastern part of the country as a second look for all of the area scouts," he said. "I'm covering from Florida all the way up North, sometimes even out to Minnesota, in terms of player evaluation, generating a lot of the background reports we use for our draft."

That means knowing and connecting the so-called "Patriot Way" to prospects. It's an approach blending on-field exploits with off-field capabilities. It's also an approach that draws directly from his time spent in classrooms, balancing time as both a student and an athlete with the rigors of Boston College.

"The number one thing is that BC does a great job preparing guys for life after football," he said. "I think back to when I met with my academic advisors. Everyone knows BC is a tough school, but I still meet with academic advisors from all across the country. So it's not just what you're doing on the field because it's about all of the off-the-field things to prove you can be a professional. It's about strength and conditioning, and I've talked to coaches about accountability and toughness. It's about academics and time management skills."

It's the lessons applied from Boston College and enhanced by some of the greatest football minds in league history. Bill Belichick presided over a constant stream of coaches and front office staff who now dot a number of NFL franchises.

"I've been able to be around guys like Scott Pioli and Thomas Dimitrioff, who are with the Atlanta Falcons" Daniels said. "Jon Robinson is now the GM of the Tennessee Titans, and Bob Quinn is the GM of the Detroit Lions. I've had a good chance to learn from them.

"And of course there's Coach Belichick and Nick Caserio," he continued. "Being able to absorb from them then prove to them that you can work and do your job. We have a motto that says, 'Get it right.' Whatever you do, just get it right."

It's an attitude that fostered as the Boston College way long before the New England Patriot way. It's a toughness that came from laying the foundational steps for a long run of Eagle success.

"I'll never forget going out to Notre Dame, as an Indiana kid, and watching them come out in those green jerseys," Daniels said. "They were an undefeated football team. And we beat them. You have to be able to brag a little bit about that.

"I look at the careers of my former teammates," he said. "They went onto play in the NFL and that's great. Those relationships with guys - we all still keep in touch. We all have kids that are about the same age. They always call or check in. They'll say to me, 'Hey, we're all pulling for you.' If I didn't go to Boston College, I don't think I would be a New England Patriot."

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