UAB’s Colin Daniel Making A Habit Of Living Up To Lofty Expectations

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - March 12, 2025

Colin Daniel’s work in a recent UAB baseball win over North Alabama was impressive.

The 6-foot-2, 215-pound junior right-hander threw seven scoreless innings in what was ultimately a 1-0 victory. He allowed four hits, one of them a double, and three walks while striking out three. He kept his team in the game on a day when they uncharacteristically had trouble producing offensive support.

A snapshot into what makes him successful, though, was the way he handled the outing.

“He was conference pitcher of the week but he comes to his bullpen today and it's ‘Hey, I watched video and I need to do this better,’” UAB pitching coach BJ Green said before last week’s win over Auburn at Regions Field. “He's hungry to be really good. You know, a lot of guys would have seen their name in the paper and be like ‘I've got it figured out.’ He's still hungry to improve, which makes my job a lot easier.”

For Daniel, the decision to take that approach is simple.

“There's always room to get better,” Daniel said. “I don't want to pitch my best game in March. I want to pitch my best game at the conference tournament when we’ve got a conference championship on the line. I think going week to week, there's always room to get better, whether that's preparing or something mechanical.”

Daniel entered the season with heightened expectations after being selected as the AAC Preseason Pitcher of the Year. He’s matched those expectations with three wins in his first four starts and a pair of AAC Pitcher of the Week honors, including after the shutout win over UNA. His only non-decision came last weekend when he gave up five hits and two runs while striking out seven in four innings during a 13-12 win over Cornell. Overall, Daniel is 3-0 with a 2.63 ERA while striking out 22 and walking seven.

“I think his thing is just his consistency, his steadiness,” said UAB head coach Casey Dunn. “You know, he's a real composed kid. He's been through a lot and he just goes out there and does his thing. He's not the guy that tries to do more than he's capable of doing. You know, he's a guy that says, ‘Hey, this is what I do. I'm going to do my best and if it's good enough, great.’”

Dunn’s history began when Daniel was 14 years old and playing on a team with Dunn’s son.

“I got to be around him at a young age,” said Dunn. “Obviously, we didn't know what he was going to turn into at that point but you knew, obviously, he was good as a young kid. He got to (Corner High School) and he was successful early on. The coach there just raved about him as a kid and as a competitor. Really, just kind of being able to follow him from an early point of his career and being able to kind of see the progression he kept making was encouraging to me.”

Daniel also started at quarterback over four seasons at Corner.

“It's different, but I think it helped at a competitive side of things,” Daniel said of his football experience. “Any sport, it’s really just whatever you can do to make your team win. I think that translates to the mound now that I'm in college, whatever I can do to put my team in the best position to win. It was the same with playing quarterback, whether that's running the ball, getting the ball to other people, doing whatever you can do to help your team win. That is the most important thing to me.”

Dunn began his recruitment of Daniel when he was still coaching at Samford. He continued the recruitment once moving over to take over the UAB program. Daniel jumped at the chance to play for Dunn, who was the first college coach to pursue him.

Now, like with many pitchers coming from high school, his first season was filled with learning. The lessons began with an appearance against Vanderbilt. He gave up three hits, including a three-run home run, in two innings.

“We kind of threw him to the fire for a little too soon,” Dunn said. “Obviously he's throwing against one of the top five programs in the country at the time. He had a rough day, like a freshman should have against an elite team. So, you know, I think he got shook a little bit early in that freshman year. It took some time for him just to realize, man, I'm really good at this.”

Daniel threw 11.2 innings in 11 games during the 2023 season and got a win against Samford after throwing a scoreless inning.   

“You know, a lot of our guys, during that freshman year, saw it,” Dunn said. “He'd throw on off days and stuff. And guys like ‘Hey, man, your stuff's good.’ You know, trying to pump him up a little bit. So, the ability has been there, it just took the confidence piece. And, you know, like a lot of people, there's a big difference in a freshman and a sophomore. He grew up a lot during that year.”

It showed during a sophomore season that finished with Daniel being selected as an All-AAC second team member. He started in all 14 games he appeared and had a complete game victory over North Alabama in his third start. He opened the season with a four-hit shutout in eight innings during a win over Kennesaw State, won his first four decisions and finished 7-4. Overall, he had 76 strikeouts and 18 walks while compiling a 3.13 ERA over 92 innings. He finished second in the AAC in walks allowed, third in ERA (3.14), fourth in K/BB ratio (4.22) and WHIP (1.23) and tied for fifth in wins.

“Going into last year, we were trying to figure out what our weekend rotation looks like,” Green said. “He had pitched good, but I think him seeing that we believed in him to start him on the weekend, coming off a freshman year that wasn't as good as what he would have wanted, (was important). We believed in him to put him in there and over the course of the year he saw he could have success. He built on it and started developing some momentum and he kind of took off from there really.”

Now, Daniel is ready to build on that season and show that he deserved the preseason honor.

“I wouldn't say there's a pressure, but now that I know there's expectations for me,” Daniel said. “They kind of makes me set my bar a little bit higher. It pushes me a little bit further in my day-to-day work in the weight room and my bullpens and then eventually to the game just being able to trust in myself and trust the guys behind me more than anything.”