Editor's note: Tight end **Owen Daniels* will be providing periodic diary entries for HoustonTexans.com to give fans insight into the life of a rookie draft pick. *
A win feels good, but it's even better when you get it on the road and the game ahead is at home. I don't mind playing on the road besides the whole traveling thing, but it's definitely nice to play in front of the home crowd. Hopefully, we can have back-to-back wins at home. That's the plan.
The coaches started giving out awards earlier this season after wins and I got the "Offensive Effort of the Week" for my game at Jacksonville. It felt really good to be recognized like that, and to have a huge banner hanging in the weight room. Everyone works really hard out there throughout the week and on Sundays, and to be singled out by the coaches felt really good. I hope I can continue to contribute and help out the team the best I can, and this weekend I have to do it against some old teammates.
There are four guys on the Bills roster that played at Wisconsin. I played with three of them: safety Jimmy Leonhard, wide receiver Lee Evans (he's pretty good), and defensive tackle Jason Jefferson. Jimmy was my roommate for three years and one of my best buddies in college. We came in together as freshmen, but he played right away while I was redshirting. We were roommates the following year until his senior season and my junior year of eligibility.
Jimmy has a good story. He was a walk-on at Wisconsin, played right away and ended up an All-American by the time he left there. Now he's in the NFL. He's one of my best buddies, and I can't wait to see him this weekend.
How about Wisconsin football? It's pretty amazing what those guys are doing up there. I don't think many people expected them to be 10-1 at this point. I didn't, and I don't know how many people in Wisconsin did, either. You always want to say that you can win all those games. But to be ninth in the BCS at this point after losing so many people? We lost every skilled position player besides the quarterback. All of the players Wisconsin lost were starters on offense – all the receivers, both tight ends, both running backs. We had no experience coming back aside from the quarterback and a couple of offensive linemen.
I'm really happy for them. It's a long shot, but hopefully something will happen where they can go to the Rose Bowl or something like that. I don't know how all that works. I'd like to see Michigan and Ohio State in the championship game, but there's not a good chance of that happening unless Michigan wins a close game this weekend. Ohio State will drop past them to No. 2 and then they have to go. Maybe then Wisconsin will have to go, too. Like I said, I don't know how all that works. I could be wrong.
In a less complicated system, my younger brother Harrison's high school football team lost this past weekend in the third round of the playoffs to a really good team that has a bunch of state championships. From what I heard, he did a really good job and the other team was just too big for them to handle. So Harrison's done with football, but now he gets ready for basketball. He's busy all year round, both my brothers are. Harrison will do track after basketball. He's busy just like his older brother was in high school.
Now that my parents don't have a game to go to on Friday, they'll be here this weekend. I finally get to use my grill. Well, my dad is going to do the grilling, and I'm going to learn from him.
[
](http://store.houstontexans.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1865446&cp=2237490&parentPage=family&clickid=mainnavgeartxt&parentPage=family)I'll have a little more time to spend with them when they're down here. Like I mentioned last week, one of the things coach Kubiak has done is restructure our weekly schedule so we get out a little earlier. That being said, we still have practice, meetings and lifting.
In the weight room, our biggest focus is trying to maintain the strength that we built up in the offseason. You want to be, if at all possible, as close to as strong as you are at end of the year as you were at the beginning of the season. That's hard to do because it's a long season and your body gets worn down and it starts to take a toll on you.
We lift on our own whenever we want to come in, but we're required to lift a couple of times during the week. I normally get in a full body workout, upper and lower body and run a little bit the day after a game. After a loss, we have to come in before noon because we have meetings at noon, and then we run together as a team or as a position depending on how the meetings go. If we win, we just have to get in a lift before 4 p.m. on Monday, and then if you want, you can run by yourself. At a minimum, we have to get in one more lift before the week is over. I do a couple upper body workouts and a lower body each week on Wednesdays.
Hope to see you Sunday at Reliant Stadium!
Owen
Entry 1: Welcome to training camp (8/1)
Entry 2: Adjusting to the NFL (8/5)
Entry 3: Getting ready (8/5)
Entry 4: Preseason debut (8/16)
Entry 5: Road trip (8/23)
Entry 6: Changing modes (8/29)
Entry 7: Becoming a starter (9/6)
Entry 8: Appearances and business (9/14)
Entry 9: Cooking 101 (9/21)
Entry 10: Season outlook (9/27)
Entry 11: Different feeling (10/4)
Entry 12: Time off (10/11)
Entry 13: Shifting gears (10/19)
Entry 14: After a win (10/26)
Entry 15: The big picture (11/3)
Entry 16: Owen's world (11/09)
