FORMER WASHINGTON STATE wide receiver Daniel Lilienthal, who walked on at WSU out of junior college, ran great post routes and ultimately earned a scholarship, died early Sunday morning in a motorcycle accident. He was 29.
The accident was one of two simultaneous, but separate motorcycle crashes on a Tustin roadway, MyNewsLA.com reports. Lilienthal, of Hemet, Calif., was rushed to an area hospital but died of his injuries. The causes of the accidents remain under investigation.
Lilienthal walked on at WSU out of Mt. San Jacinto in 2013. Former WSU coach Mike Leach had trouble with Lilienthal’s last name, saying it was “a mouthful” so he started calling him “Dan Post” instead because he ran such good post routes. The nickname stuck.
“His name’s Dan Post, that’s why — that’s what we called him,” Leach said after a spring scrimmage in 2015 that saw Lilienthal top 100 receiving yards. “When we first got here, Lilienthal, that’s a long name, that’s a mouthful. And so, we said well we’re going to shorten this and he’d just got a post so we called him Dan Post. (We) one-syllabled the thing — and he catches posts pretty good.”
In 2015 as a fifth-year senior, Lilienthal was put on scholarship and played in 10 games that season, totaling four catches for 32 yards.
Lilienthal was born in Oceanside but grew up in Hemet where he starred at West Valley High. After Washington State, he became the owner of a personal trainer business, Right Focus Training.
From his company’s website page: “Throughout my life with sports I was mostly the back-up, I had a chip on my shoulder to work hard to get where I wanted to be, I trusted in God to get me “there” and sacrificed sleep or weekends to wake up early to work out; it took consistency and Focus, with that I was able to earn a scholarship and play for Washington State University. Go Cougs.”
-247 Sports
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