- 25th overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
- Played for Syracuse from 1994 through 1997.
Double D made you think twice about coming over the middle. One of the best safeties in the history of the Orange program, Donovin Darius was both feared and respected. Sadly in today’s game, Darius’s physicality would probably be frowned upon.
Darius set the bar with 379 tackles as a defensive back (still a record at Syracuse). But the thing of it is, Darius wasn’t just a one trick pony, he also was a dangerous ball hawk. In his senior season he snagged seven interceptions, which put his career totals at 12 picks. Some serious stat padding for mama in his final campaign.
You can understand why he was a first round pick. But that continued in the pros as well, most know Darius for his nine-year career with the Jacksonville Jaguars. I have a theory that if a player is always around the football, it’s not a coincidence.
That isn’t luck, that shows great film study. Darius always seemed to be in the right place at the right time and that resulted in more turnovers and timely tackles. The fact that we saw a Syracuse safety duo both get selected in the first round of the same draft is pretty incredible (Tebucky to the Patriots and Donovin to the Jaguars).