By Mark Rountree

Sports Editor



As his final season of college football approaches, Daniel Holtzclaw has three simple, but hard-to-attain, goals.

“I want to play my hardest on every play,’’ said Holtzclaw, a senior linebacker at Eastern Michigan. “I want to win the (conference) championship and I want to play pro football.’’

Holtzclaw, a former Enid High School standout, has started all 35 games at middle linebacker during his three-year EMU career. He has 330 tackles in three seasons, good for 10th on the EMU career tackles list. He needs 120 tackles this season to catch Reese McCaskill, the school’s leader with 450 career tackles from 1992-95.

“If I play my hardest and stayed focused, I won’t have any regrets and the stats will come,’’ Holtzclaw said. “I don’t think I have maxed out my play at the college level. I can still do better.’’

Eastern Michigan finished with a 4-8 record last year, but Holtzclaw said the Eagles have enough ability to make a run at the Mid-American Conference title.

“The stats are great, but I don’t a have a conference (championship) ring yet, and that’s what I want,’’ he said.

Holtzclaw, 21, was a freshman All-American in 2005 and a first-team All MAC selection in 2007. He finished third in the MAC and tied for 21st in the nation with 125 tackles.

Holtzclaw has been selected to the Bronco Nagurski Trophy and Rotary Lombardi Award watch lists.

“It’s an honor to be thrown in there with other great players from the big conferences,’’ he said. “I take it as motivation to be a player from the MAC going against other players from conferences like the SEC and Big 12.’’

Holtzclaw has his sights set on earning a spot on one of the more prestigious senior bowl games at the end of the season. The Senior Bowl, the most prestigious, is Jan. 24 in Mobile, Ala.

The other top game for outgoing college players is the East-West Shrine Game Jan. 17 in Houston.

When he first arrived on the Ypsilanti, Mich., campus as a freshman, Holtzclaw had to make the adjustment from being a high school player to a big-time college player.

“You have to learn how to manage your time,’’ he said. “You have to learn how to get your sleep and eat well. And you have to learn how to prepare yourself mentally and physically to play the game.

“Now, I’m in my fourth year. I’m a senior and a leader, and I’m going to respect that role as a leader.’’

Holtzclaw said he will have to play as well or better this season to enhance his stock as a professional prospect. Holtzclaw said several agents have contacted him this summer in hopes of landing him as a client when his college days are over.

“I’m going to try to narrow it down to the top five before the season starts,’’ he said. “I don’t want to have to be thinking about that during the season so I can be stress-free and focus on football and not worry about agents.

“My preseason projection is that I’m draftable but I still have to go out and have a great season, get invited to the (NFL Scouting) Combine and go to the Senior Bowl.’’

At 6-foot-1, 245 pounds, Holtzclaw may be considered a bit small to play linebacker at the professional level. But his weight room numbers are impressive. He has recorded 33 repetitions with 225 pounds on the bench press and squats more than 600 pounds. He has jumped 33 1/2 inches in the vertical jump and run a 4.1 seconds in the shuttle drill.

Holtzclaw has endured various bumps and bruises during his three-year career but has not suffered any serious injury that prevented him from taking the field every Saturday.

“You have to be a little lucky,’’ he said. “Knock on wood, I can stay healthy this year and have a great year.’’

The Eagles open the season Thursday at home against Indiana State.