Troy’s Daniel Sheffield embraces fatherhood

TROY — You’ll have to forgive Daniel Sheffield if he didn’t get enough rest the night before Troy’s 30-27 win at Arkansas State on Sept. 26.

At about 2:30 a.m., he got the call that his son, Jaylen, had been born. He said he got about 21 phone calls and text messages in the morning hours before the game.

“They said, ‘You should have seen him when he came out,’ ” Sheffield said. “I just said, ‘Spare me the details.’ ”

Stats-wise, the Troy linebacker had his best game of the season that day, recording eight tackles in the Trojans’ come-from-behind win.

“It wasn’t really that tough (to play),” Sheffield said. “I was just so excited to get back home and go see him. I was ready to get the game over with. Let’s go out and have a good game so I can go home and see my son.”

He couldn’t sleep on the eight-hour bus ride home from Jonesboro, Ark., and when he got home, he went straight to the hospital. This was at 3 a.m., when he had been awake for 24 hours.

“When I got to the hospital, I was so exhausted because I had stayed up the whole trip back,” Sheffield said. “When I got there, I picked him up out of the baby bin, played with him on my chest and we both fell asleep.”

Sheffield, a junior, came to Troy last year from Garden City (Kan.) Community College. He played sparingly as a sophomore at safety and on special teams, but the 6-foot-4, 210-pounder moved to the nickel position in the spring.

He’s splitting time with senior David McDowell, but has started all but one game. Terence Moore played nickel last year for Troy and led the Sun Belt in interceptions. Sherrod Martin played the position two years before. Both all-conference players graduated last year, though.

Troy head coach Larry Blakeney said the move has come natural for Sheffield, who is third on the team with 32 tackles and got his first career sack in last week’s 42-33 win at FIU. Troy (4-2, 3-0 Sun Belt) hosts North Texas (1-5, 0-2) Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

“You’ve got to be able to cover deep receivers out there (at safety),” Blakeney said. “He had a great element of height and reach, but he’s not quite the backpedal type guy, but we move him up here (to nickel) and he backpedals as good or better than any of them.”

Sheffield was nicknamed “Pee Wee” by his mother because he was almost two months premature at birth, though he still weighed 7 pounds. The nickname stuck.

He had practice changing diapers for his younger brother, now 10 years old, so Jaylen’s daily diaper changes aren’t hard.

“It was pretty cool,” Sheffield said.

Jaylen’s birth, Sheffield said, made him get his priorities in order. Jaylen stays with his mother, who Sheffield is close to but not in a relationship with. He’ll graduate with a degree in social sciences in the spring, finishing in four years. He said he’d spend his last year of eligibility working on another degree in criminal justice.

After football, Sheffield said he hopes to work in law enforcement. One thing is for sure — he’s set on providing for Little Pee Wee.

“The best advice I’ve gotten is to watch what you do, because he’s looking up to you,” Sheffield said. “I’m a silly, goofy type person. I like to have fun, but when the serious moments come, I’ll buckle down.

“It’s changed a lot of things tremendously. You have to grow up faster. He’s No. 1, and I stay more focused on my books than I have in the past. It’s a big step in my life.”