MORGANTOWN - Even when WVU's wide receivers and special teamscoach Daron Roberts had a master's degree and was working to finishcoursework at Harvard Law School, he would look past a career incorporate law and lock his gaze on a retirement plan.
"I was going to coach football at Mount Pleasant High School,"said Roberts, the latest and final addition to West Virginiafootball's coaching staff.
Roberts played his prep football in that small town in northeastTexas that doesn't sell alcohol, but did have the state's first Wal-Mart. The dream was in his head and it would take a step forwardfrom the recesses of his mind every time he returned from Harvard tovisit his parents.
The flight from Boston would take him only to Dallas, and he hadto drive another two hours home.
Every time, though, he'd stop along the way and visit his olddefensive coordinator. And every time they'd watch the tapes fromwhen Roberts rolled with the Tigers.
"Eventually I told myself, 'You're going to your defensivecoordinator's house before you go home to see your mom and dad,'" hesaid. "And I love my mom and dad."
He loved football, too. He thought he left it behind when he wentto Texas for his undergraduate degree and then to Harvard, but itwouldn't leave him.
"I never lost sight of the fact that the best four years of mylife were spent playing high school football," he said.
In the summer of 2006, just before he began his third and finalyear of law school, a friend suggested they drive to Columbia, S.C.,for South Carolina's football camp.
"It changed my life," he said.
Roberts went to camps at LSU and then Boston College later thatsummer. He was hooked.
A year later, he had his law degree and was preparing to take thebar exam in Texas, but veered sharply off course and went to theKansas City Chiefs training camp.
Two years later, he was an assistant coach with the DetroitLions.
Now, he's a FBS program's assistant making $200,000 annually tocoach WVU wide receivers and punt and kickoff return teams.
"Had my buddy not called me to work that camp in South Carolina,I might be working at a firm in New York," Roberts said. "I'mfortunate enough he did call me and that I had a couple sick days Icould use at my law firm so we could drive to Columbia. Thatexperience set me on this path."
* n n
THAT EXPERIENCE was rooted in a little bit of fraud. Thosecollege camps he worked are somewhat exclusive. They take coachesfrom all sorts of colleges and high schools, but they don'tgenerally take aides to senators and former presidential candidatesor assistants to lieutenant governors who have no coachingexperience.
In fact, the registration forms anyone can find online attempt todesignate who's who. Roberts found a way around that.
"I listed the school I went to in Texas. What I didn't say wasthe school I coached," he said. "It said 'Name' and 'Affiliation.' Ikind of interpreted that loosely. I'm a Mount Pleasant alumnus.Maybe they assumed I coached there."
The secret would get out after a while and it was there whereRoberts was first projected to be a little bit crazy.
"I'd get in and I wouldn't say anything," Roberts said. "I'd justwork for three or four days. The guys would say after you're sittingaround and talking a little bit, 'You're in law school? What? Mostpeople are trying to get out of camps and you're trying to sneakin?'
"But working those three camps reaffirmed for me that this iswhat I should be doing."
* n n
HIS PLAN to abandon a formidable education to pursue a fantasywas not uniformly popular. Roberts told people he was stepping awayfrom law and all the accomplishments and connections he'd secured inmergers and acquisitions to enter the entirely unknown world of theNFL as an unpaid volunteer.
Some reactions were predictable.
"I got a lot of insanity e-mails," he said. "My grandmother sentme one."
He also had a lot of support through it all. Roberts was aresponsible and surely sane person. Those around him knew he'dthought about his decision and was serious about making it work.More people talked him into it than tried to talk him out of it.
His parents offered this advice: "The best time to go broke iswhen you have no money."
His law school dean ruled in his favor: "It's just like going toHarvard. If you have an opportunity to be in the NFL, you have tojump on it. Legal issues are not going anywhere. People are stillgoing to have problems. You can always practice. You won't alwayshave a shot to go to the NFL."
The greatest assist came before all of that. Roberts was in asports law class in his second year of law school. In 2005 he wantedto write a paper on the relationship between legal training andcoaching. His professor happened to be "infatuated" with then-TexasTech Coach Mike Leach, who has a law degree from Pepperdine.
He also happened to be one of the few big-time coaches who neverplayed college football.
The professor granted Roberts a one-month sabbatical and it wasthere where Roberts first met WVU's offensive coordinator DanaHolgorsen, who reached out and brought Roberts to campus last week.
"He and I stayed in contact when I got into coaching," Robertssaid. "I saw him at the national championship game and congratulatedhim on the opportunity to come here. He said he'd keep me in mindwhen there was an opening."
Roberts spent the first part of his coaching career working withspecial teams and the Mountaineers were in need of not just areceivers coach when Lonnie Galloway left for Wake Forest lastmonth, but someone to coach the punt and kickoff return teams afterDave McMichael was not retained by Holgorsen.
"Let's be brutally honest," WVU Coach Bill Stewart said. "I'venot been pleased with the punt and kickoff return teams."
Stewart also said Roberts can be a "tremendous asset" recruitingVirginia and Washington D.C., areas Galloway and former assistantChris Beatty worked. The Mountaineers have landed a number ofplayers from there in recent years, but only a few have stuck aroundlong enough to help.
All that is fine with Roberts.
"You've got to remember, I was going to Detroit on the heels of a0-16 season," he said. "I knew I couldn't wear my gear outside. Wegot to 2-14 and then 6-10, but I know where to hide."
* n n
ROBERTS EARNED his law degree in June 2007 then paid for andregistered to take the Texas bar at the end of the following month.He also sent letters to every NFL head coach and defensivecoordinator and the upper echelon of Division I schools to ask foran opportunity.
Only the Chiefs replied with an invitation to come to theirtraining camp. It happened to overlap with the bar. Rather than showup late for camps, he passed on the bar, though he was granted anindefinite waiver to take the exam whenever he wanted.
He still hasn't.
"My mom is a little upset about this," he said.
The Chiefs were impressed and had him stay on as a volunteerassistant. A year later, he was the defensive quality controlassistant.
In 2009, he moved along to the Detroit Lions with defensivecoordinator Gunther Cunningham as the assistant in the secondary.
He even showed his grandma a picture of him on the sideline hardat work during a game.
"She swore I was Photoshopped into it," he said.
It was a rapid ascent, but it was not so simple.
"You have to humble yourself," Roberts said. "Coaches feel verygood about their knowledge base and when someone comes in who hasn'tcoached, man. I got absolutely beaten down by some guys."
Those same guys built him up, whether they realized it or not.
Roberts can teach receivers. He can craft schemes for return men.Eventually he'll recruit players to campus. The greatest value,though, is in how a 32-year-old who never abandoned his plan relatesto teenagers and young adults.
"Kids - and it doesn't matter where you are - have problems,"Holgorsen said. "They deal with things every day, from an academicstandpoint to temptations around town to time management to gettingworn out in the weight room to getting yelled at out on the practicefield.
"There are a lot of issues and having a guy like that who hasaccomplished what he accomplished and done things on his own can bea good sounding board for the guys."
* n n
THE DREAM is to be a major college head coach, but Roberts staysup on the law and relevant issues "just in case I ever do practice,which I don't see happening."
Roberts set up an email account years back and asked his friendsfrom Harvard to send him articles he needed to read.
"I check that e-mail once a year just to read through thearticles," he said. "It's quite amazing."
The same might be said of Roberts' story. In addition to all ofthe above, he also founded the "4th and 1 Football Camp," a freecamp for kids in Mount Pleasant, Texas, and East Lansing, Mich.,that blends football instruction with test preparation and lifeskills.
NCAA rules prevent Roberts from having an affiliation with thecamp as long as he works on a college staff, but the camp willcontinue without him.
He remains philanthropic in other areas and said he's mentoring alaw student on the side, which makes sense considering all Robertshas been through and the decisions he faced along the way.
There's a question behind all of this, though, that needs to beasked: Would Roberts advise someone to do what he did?
If the circumstances are right, Roberts said he would.
"For me, it was easy," he said. "I had an old, beat-up Tahoe andI wasn't married at the time and I didn't have any kids at the time.I could pick up and go."
Roberts has been married for a year now. He and his wife, Hilary,are raising their 7-month-old son, Dylan. Hilary is house hunting inMorgantown. She's supposed to involve her husband when she'snarrowed the choices to two or three.
Life is simpler these days.
"If someone is married and trying to do this, he'd have to have asupportive wife because you can be working for free," he said.
"I've known some guys who have worked for five or six yearsbefore their first break came. If they're passionate enough aboutit, I'd say do it because if it works out, it's worth it."
MATTHEW SUNDAY/FOR THE DAILY MAIL West Virginia University widereceivers and special teams coach Daron Roberts was an assistantcoach with the Detroit Lions.
Contact sportswriter Mike Casazza at mikec@dailymail.com or 304-319-1142.
