Wake Forest Athletics News - Wake Forest University Athletics

Going Home Now Easier For Brantley

By Sam Walker

Oct. 20, 2003

It's not quite as difficult as it used to be for linebacker Kellen Brantley to go home. Growing up in the football rich area of Miami's Dade County Brantley would go home and see all his high school friends who went "other places" to play "big-time" college football. They were showing off their shiny bowl rings and telling their season's war stories. Whether it was or not, it felt like bragging and made Brantley feel a little left out. Now, after Wake Forest's victory in the Seattle Bowl a season ago and two consecutive winning seasons under coach Jim Grobe, Brantley doesn't feel quite like an outcast any more in south Florida.

"It was sad there for a while to go home being from Dade County," Brantley said. "A lot of different kids, a lot of my friends go everywhere to play football and everybody came home with their bowl rings. For a while there, all I did was come home for Christmas. All my friends were home with their bowl rings, and it was sad not to know that feeling, what it was like. I didn't have my bowl ring yet last Christmas, but I showed it off this summer. It was a good feeling to finally have one."

Coming out of Miami's Coral Park High School, Brantley felt like he was overlooked as a talent by college recruiters and ended up spending a year at Hargrave Military Academy, a prep school in Chatham, Va. As a result, he was a bit more battle-tested, a year older and perhaps more ready to step into college football. The coaching staff seemed to think so, and Brantley played in all 11 games of his freshman season as a backup. He was promoted to the starting lineup the very next season.

"I think coming out of high school I got overlooked so I ended up going to Hargrave where I got a lot of exposure to schools around this area. Coach Caldwell (former head coach Jim Caldwell) and the staff and this place just seemed like the perfect place for me. They made me a priority in recruiting, and I felt like I could do good things if I could go in January and go through the spring and learn the defense. So it was just the perfect fit at the perfect time."

And even after the Caldwell era ended and Grobe's staff took over, Brantley has fit perfectly into Wake Forest's defense. As a sophomore he ranked second on the team with 95 tackles as an inside-linebacker in the Deacons' 3-4 defensive scheme. Then when Wake Forest went to a 3-3-5 defense, he became an outside linebacker. He currently is listed on Deacons' career tackles-for-loss chart, and entering the Oct. 18 game at Duke had more career tackles then any other current Deacon player. This season he is the team's sixth-leading tackler and is tied for the team lead in tackles for loss.

"The thing I'm most impressed with Kellen is, he's become a more physical football player," Grobe said. "He's always been a pretty good athlete, but this year so far we've seen a much more physical football player. He's throwing his body around a little bit more than he has in the past, and I think he's really having fun playing football right now."

Grobe's words could be construed as coachspeak, but for Brantley they are considered high praise. He's listed at 6-3 and 238 pounds, roughly the same size he was when he came to the Winston-Salem campus almost four years ago. But that doesn't mean he's one of those players that likes to avoid the weight room. In fact, it's his favorite place on campus. "I've never really changed my weight, and I guess it makes it seem that I haven't been working that hard," Brantley said. "Actually, coming into camp I was about 250 and last year I played at about 245. Now I'm playing again at about 245. But when I came in I was more pudgy, and I've lost a lot of that since my freshman year."

Brantley spent both summer sessions at Wake Forest working more specifically on getting his upper body stronger. He lifted four times per week with Ethan Reeve, Wake Forest's strength coach, and then again on his own to complete a six-day schedule. "It's my senior year, so it's all or nothing this year, and I came into the season with that mindset going into the summer and going into workouts," Brantley said. "One of my main goals was to be more physical this year. I don't think I was as physical as I could have been my junior year. My sophomore year I was a little small, but I threw my body around a little more. I felt like I had to prove myself physically, and I don't think it showed as much my junior year. So I worked on it a lot in the offseason. I have a lot of random NFL games on tape and I watch NFL players and try to improve myself."

Grobe's assessment of Brantley's play must be satisfying considering his personal goals for his senior season. Possibly even more satisfying has been Grobe's appreciation of Brantley's durability. In a season that has been injury-filled for the Deacons, Brantley has been one player that's been ready to go each Saturday.

"Kellen's one of those guys who has been a little bit banged up from week to week but has never complained," Grobe said. "He's an old player who has been very, very dependable for us. That's important. We have some guys on our football team that have a lot of talent, but they're not dependable. They practice one day but not the next. They play one Saturday but not the next. But Kellen is a guy who has not only played well for us, but he's been a very dependable guy. He's always been there."

With six games left on the 2003 slate for Brantley he plans on staying on the field to help turn around a season that has gone awry with back-to-back losses to Virginia and Georgia Tech. Consecutive losses is something that Wake Forest had not endured since the 2001 season. Following their previous 10 losses, the Deacons had rebounded to win the very next game. If that fact isn't incentive enough, Brantley has a myriad of his own reasons why he wants to turn things around the second half of the season. Most prominent is that he wants to leave a lasting legacy at Wake Forest. "I feel like this season will be a letdown if we don't keep the program advancing," Brantley said. "We won seven last year, and we should win no less than seven this year, and hopefully get an eighth and a bowl game. I want to see Wake Forest establish itself as a contender every year."