On Sunday night Daniel Barker was driving on Kirby Avenue in Champaign, the street between Memorial Stadium and State Farm Center.
Barker noticed that there was a car pulled over to the side with their hazard lights flashing next to Grange Grove, the tailgating lot outside of Memorial Stadium. He decided to pull over and help the person who looked to be in distress.
“I’m not going to drive past anybody. I’m going to stop and ask to do anything I can do to help,” Barker said.
That good samaritan attitude has carried over to his play on the football, where Barker is doing anything he can to help his team win.
The junior tight end has helped Illinois' offense – and four different starting quarterbacks – a lot in 2020. After a breakout sophomore season in 2019, Barker has continued to improve. The Fort Lauderdale, Florida, native is second on the Illini both pass receptions and receiving yards and he caught his first touchdown on the season against Iowa on Saturday.
“It was great, I haven’t been in the end zone in a minute, so I did the things that I normally do,” Barker said.
He celebrated the score by sprinting to the Illini sideline with his arms hovering over his hunched over back. Barker has been overzealous in celebrating TD’s before, so the celebration did get a reaction out of Lovie Smith who motioned for him to relax before a yellow flag appeared.
Despite having just one touchdown reception this season Barker being a priority target for his quarterbacks is nothing new. Last season, Barker was second on the team in average yards per reception and touchdowns, becoming a big-play threat. None bigger than his game-clinching touchdown in the back of the endzone at Michigan State to complete Illinois’ biggest comeback in program history.
There was never much doubt about Barker’s receiving skills, but he has struggled at times in run blocking and he often found himself on the bench last season on running downs. During the extended offseason, Barker made it a point to improve his ability as a run blocker and it has contributed to him getting more opportunities on run plays in 2020.
“This offseason I worked hard on learning different techniques or to be able to block in a certain type of position and things like that,” Barker said.
Illinois added some flavor to their tight end room this season with former Georgia transfer Luke Ford and USC graduate-transfer Daniel Imatorbhebhe both eligible. Many expected Illinois to run a lot of 12 personnel (one running back and two tight ends) because of their tight end depth and the expectation was that Ford and Imatorbhebhe could take snaps away from Barker.
Barker – the experienced man in the room – has proven to take the next step during his junior year and he has been a consistent bright spot for the Illini offense all season.
“I think he is playing his best football,” Offensive Coordinator Rod Smith said. “He is blocking much better, trying to be more physical and he has always been a threat in the pass game.”
One of the impressive things about Barker’s consistent play in 2020 – a year in which everything seems to be inconsistent – is the fact that he has done it with four different starting quarterbacks. It’s been a whirlwind.
Senior starter Brandon Peters started the season but was sidelined for three weeks after a positive COVID-19 test. Matt Robinson started against Purdue but injured his ankle on Illinois’ first series. Coran Taylor quickly replaced Robinson and then started against Minnesota the following week.
Redshirt-freshman Isaiah Williams was forced to miss the Purdue and Minnesota games, due to COVID-19 contract tracing, but he started the Illini’s fourth game against Rutgers. Through it all Barker has been a reliable target for all four of the Illini’s quarterbacks.
“I would say that I have a great relationship with all the quarterbacks, so them finding me and just getting open is things they always see, so it’s nothing for them to get used to,” Barker said.
Fortunately, the stranger on the side of the road Sunday night just ran out of gas, so Barker hoped back into his car and drove to a near gas station to provide this stranger enough gas to get to a gas station.
When Barker returned with a gas can, he noticed that this stranger was actually a familiar face. It was a worker from the Champaign Country Club where the Illini used to eat meals in past seasons.
Barker is happy to keep doing the little things and help the people around him, whether it be the person on the side of the road or helping his team win on the gridiron.
“It always feels good to give back and help people that need help,” Barker said. “They needed help, so that’s what I did.”
