Loyalty, Hard Work led Damani Dent to Michigan

If you ask Jacksonville (Fla.) Terry Parker defensive back Damani Dent what the biggest accomplishment of his high school career was, he wouldn’t talk about his stats, or the playoff appearances he helped lead Terry Parker to, or the 12 offers he landed, or his selection to the Pylon All-American Game. 

“I would say, leaving a legacy with kids that just want to be great,” Dent said. “Because at my school, no one had Power Five offers. I’m really the first one to do that. But I stayed at my school. I could have gone to a bigger school and could have had [offers from] Florida and Miami. I got Florida and Miami late. I could have had all that [earlier] but I stayed solid.”  

Loyalty is important to Dent. 

It’s why he stuck with Terry Parker even when his peers at more prominent high schools were landing offers and he wasn’t. It’s why he stuck with his commitment to Michigan even when Mario Cristobal told him he dropped defensive backs from Miami’s roster to make room for him just days ahead of National Signing Day to try and get him to stay closer to home. 

However, to Dent, more important than loyalty is hard work. 

In ninth grade, former Louisville standout Calvin Pryor, who was drafted by the New York Jets in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft, invited him to his house and instilled a work ethic in him that he carries to this day. 

“We got to chopping it up and he was like ‘Look man, you can be better than me. So if you do what you got to do and stay in school, I can help you out with everything. I just need you to do your end,’” Dent said. “So that’s what really put me in a mindset of working out, grinding everyday.” 

That conversation with Pryor set Dent on his unprecedented path. He stayed true to his word and got to work. Day in and day out, he worked to add something to his game. 

For the first three years of his high school career, the work went relatively unnoticed. 

Finally, in the spring of 2021, Troy, Akron and Eastern Kentucky offered. Dent assessed his options and committed to Akron in April, seemingly putting an end to his recruitment. 

Then, a month before his senior season, Dent landed an offer from Oregon after attending a camp in Eugene. Just two days later, Michigan offered and Dent re-opened his recruitment.

Dent admitted Oregon was his “dream school,’ and that it took time for the Wolverines to emerge as a serious contender in his recruitment. 

For the Florida native, it was a “grown man talk” that helped him realize Michigan was the place for him. Dent bonded well with Jim Harbaugh and safeties coach Ron Bellamy. With Bellamy, it was a similar upbringing that drew the two close. 

“We came up from that kind of same struggle so it’s a good understanding,” Dent said. 

With Harbaugh, the Michigan head coach saw a lot of himself in the safety from Jacksonville. 

“Damani Dent, he’s a guy I’ve really gotten so close to in the class,” Harbaugh told Jon Jansen on the In the Trenches podcast. “There are guys you talk to everyday — they text me or I text them every day. Damani has certainly been like that … great personality. That’s Damani Dent. It’s kind of like looking in the mirror — the enthusiasm, the love of football. He just really, really stands out to me that way.”

What sealed the deal for Dent was conversation with the academics department while on his official visit. Dent came to the realization that what Michigan had to offer was more than just football. With the understanding of what a degree from the University of Michigan means for his future, Dent committed to the Wolverines on Oct. 18, 2021, a little over a month after making his official visit to Ann Arbor. 

Now, as Dent looks forward to his college career, the worth ethic instilled in him early in his high school career remains the same. Bellamy has pitched Dent on filling the role left behind by the NFL-bound Dax Hill in the Wolverines’ defense. Though Dent won’t enroll at Michigan until the summer, the three-star out of Jacksonville is expected to compete with fellow incoming freshman Zeke Berry and older defensive backs already on the roster for Hill’s spot. 

Even if he doesn’t win the role as a freshman, Dent’s goal is to get on the field as early as possible, any way possible. 

When it’s all said and done, he hopes his biggest accomplishment in his time at Michigan is the same as his time at Terry Parker. 

“I just want to leave the same legacy for all the kids coming in,” he said. “I want them to think ‘This is a school I want to come to. I saw Damani come here, I want to come here. He did this here, I want to do this and I want to do it better.’”