The discussion would be one thing if Micahi Danzy focused on just track. Or just football. The life of a college athlete is a busy one and often structured day to day.

Juggling two sports plus academics isn’t easy. But Danzy is used to it after doing just that at a high level at Tallahassee’s Florida High.

“I have lifting in the morning for track. Class. Learning specialist for school. Track practice. And then I go to learn the (football) plays,” Danzy said. “I’m really prioritizing track right now, but I'm trying to learn the plays. I'm trying to keep up with what they're doing on the field, like walkthroughs.”

Keeping up is work, but it’s fun for Danzy. And he’s not just keeping up right now on the track — he’s put his name in FSU’s record books.

Danzy is excelling in his first collegiate indoor track season, recording the third-fastest time in FSU history in the 400 meters (46.14) in the Jarvis Scott Invite at Texas Tech. His race in Lubbock, Texas, also showed improvement off his earlier 400 time at Clemson (46.34), which is the fifth-fastest in school history.

Yes, a pair of top 5s for the history books already for the freshman. He also ran a leg of the 4x400 relay with Curtis Bain, Amare Williams and British Wilkerson as the Seminoles took second in the Clemson meet and third in the Texas Tech meet.

Like many prep sprinters in the South, Danzy has not spent much time running indoors meets. Danzy feels he’s “definitely” a better runner outdoors, and he is in part using the indoor season — which continues with this weekend’s ACC championships at Louisville — to build toward the spring season as he works with FSU associate head coach Ricky Argro.

“I was definitely proud of myself, but I wasn't shocked with the results,” Danzy told the Osceola. “Coach Argro even believed what I could do. So it wasn't really a shocker. It was more like, ‘Ok, we got this now.’

“It's a small step to a 45. Everything is just a small step to a 45 indoor and then another small step to a 44.”

Danzy kept active in sports from an early age. His first love was track, recalling that he was running at 4. Then football. “I wasn’t good at basketball,” Danzy said.

He was fast but running with friends made an individual sport fun, feeling like it was a team. As he got older, Danzy was known as a long strider. He claimed back-to-back Class 2A state titles at Florida High in the 200 and 400 while taking a runner-up finish in 2024 in the 100. On the football field, Danzy had 2,134 all-purpose yards and 17 rushing touchdowns as Florida High made a run to the Class 2S state title game in 2022.

The 400 is his best event because of his long stride and how he runs around the curves of the track.

“I slingshot myself off the curve and that's why I start gaining speed,” Danzy said. “… I'm trying to gain speed off the curve and slingshot myself into the last 100.”

There’s always room to improve his times. How does he analyze his races? Danzy and Argro see where he can trim a fraction of a second.

“Coach Argro is always critiquing me on my first 200,” Danzy said. “He wants me to get out to a 21.4. I probably run like a 21.6. That's the difference between a 45.8 and a 46-flat. So he always wants me to get out faster. Getting out faster, it holds you through the last 200.”

Argro is happy with how Danzy is adjusting to high-level college competition.

“He’s going into the ACC Championships as a freshman, and he is ready to compete at a high level,” Argro said. “I am very proud of his continued growth.”

Danzy has a busy spring ahead. Indoor meets. Outdoor meets. Spring football practices. Classes and goals of pursuing a degree in entrepreneurship.

After a fall in which Danzy watched mostly from the sideline while learning, he participated in four football games and picked up five yards on two carries. A 38-yard reception against Charleston Southern in November showed some of his big-play potential.

Danzy was mostly a running back in high school. Recruiting services, including Rivals, viewed him as versatile and classified him as an athlete. And while Danzy was in the running back room in the fall of 2024, FSU coach Mike Norvell and running backs coach David Johnson began preparing him to play receiver.

“Coach YAC, beginning of the season, he slowly introduced slot to me,” Danzy said. “And I kept getting better. They liked what they see. I had a feeling that I was getting moved to wide receiver. I took that as him trusting me to play wide receiver.

“And I want to improve on it. Coach Norvell saw what I could do at wide receiver, use my speed. I feel like this is a long-term decision in moving me there.”

Danzy knows what will be ahead this spring. There will be days where he will juggle football and track practices, not to mention academics. But he feels confident in a plan put together by coaches from both programs to manage his daily workload. It’s one where he emphasized frequently that Norvell wants Danzy to prioritize track during the indoor and outdoor season.

“Coach Norvell made it certain that he's not going to make me do any contact stuff (in spring practices) to beat me up and affect my track season,” Danzy aid. “I'm just going to do 7 on 7, and stuff like that. Learn the routes. Come out here and not be as beat up to be able to practice and coach Argro would set the (track) workout.”

The workouts, and workload, are what drive Danzy. It’s a combination of track and football, two loves, that won’t allow him to rest. He states definitively that he can’t round corners as he works to compete at a high level in two sports.

“This is not just running,” Danzy said. “This is a mental battle. I’m out here every day. It’s not something you could take a break in. Track is something where you could take a two-day break and be out of shape. You have to be on the track every day, committed and push to your hardest. You have to be out there every day pushing.”

That means there will be plenty of busy days ahead in March and April, on the track and on the football field, for Danzy.

Join the Osceola for 30 days for free, using promo code Osceola30

Follow The Osceola on Facebook

Follow The Osceola on Twitter

Subscribe to the Osceola's YouTube channel

Subscribe to the Osceola's podcasts on Apple