Gator Country

Florida redshirt-freshman quarterback John Brantley throws a 25-yard pass to Omarius Hines during the Gators' 56-6 win against Troy on Sept. 12, 2009 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. / Gator Country photo by Tim Casey

Pick a hat, pick a school. Commit. Then the head coach of the school suddenly changes job, or quits the profession. Second thoughts sometimes prevail and result in a changed mind, then a decommit happens. After all, these are 17- and 18-year-year-olds.

Thus the fickle nature of college football recruiting, the second biggest, most-publicized flesh market in America next to the NFL Draft.

Tremendous pressure can mount on these teens, who sometimes change their minds. It can happen to the best of them. In fact, it did happen to Johnny Brantley, who takes over as quarterback for Urban Meyer’s Florida Gators this fall. He went through the entire recruiting process, made up his mind to play for Texas, then flipped over to Florida.

Part of the reason Brantley came to Florida was the quiet, steady work of Meyer’s recruiters, who never resorted to pressure, but also never quit trying.

On that decommit, the Gators benefited. Now Meyer is hoping that his stellar class of 2010 stays true to its verbals on National Signing Day. If everybody does, he will have landed what the experts are saying could the best class of talent ever assembled.

According to ESPN’s Tom Luginbill, “The quality of this class is staggering, given what has taken place with the program in the past month, with the uncertainty surrounding Urban Meyer and his health issues.”

* * *

Nobody flies under the radar anymore when it comes to college football recruiting. High school players face intense scrutiny from the time they start playing varsity --- some even before that. And so the media reflects this fascination with schoolboys who are about to become the next wave of collegiate stars.

Colleges are getting a head start with juniors and even sophomores. In some cases that can help the athlete and his family. In the case of Brantley’s family it was encouraged.

Having been through the process before, the Brantleys knew what to expect by the time quarterbacking phenom Johnny had come of age. Although his dad, John III, didn’t have nearly as many offers, Johnny’s uncle Scot had received them from all over the country. Wanting to control the process, John III became proactive and began narrowing the list early.

In fact, after Johnny’s sophomore season, a highlight tape was made and sent to coaching friends for assessment. It proved to be the right decision and took pressure off Johnny for his senior season at Ocala Trinity Catholic. Having chosen his college, he could focus on the season. And yet, at first he chose a school other than Florida.

John III, the coach and father, was his son’s quarterback coach at Trinity Catholic, where John IV also got tutelage from former Gator and NFLer Kerwin Bell. They could see at a young age that there was ample talent.

Having friends like Bob Stoops at Oklahoma and Steve Spurrier at South Carolina and Chan Gailey at Georgia Tech, JB III took advantage and sent them all tapes of Johnny.

“I didn’t want them to think I was a father trying to promote my son,” said Brantley the coach. “So I just asked then to take a look and see what they could recommend for Johnny to get better.” He began to get feedback on things like footwork which became helpful coaching tools.

Johnny Brantley was already on the radar screens of some heavy hitter college coaches.

By the time he was a junior at Trinity and began to develop, the Celtics developed around him.  Trinity won the State Class B title as Johnny threw for 2,766 yards and 41 touchdowns, making all-state. Now the mailbox at the Brantleys overflowed. Almost every Division I school would make contact.

It was Team Brantley at home. John III would talk to the coaches and the schools, plus help Johnny at Trinity, and his mom Karen would hammer away at the academics.

And the mailwoman kept bringing the letters. Before Johnny’s senior year, she and the Brantleys were on a first-name basis as the letters poured it. “She kind of got a kick out of it,” said Brantley.

Eventually the weeding out process narrowed the choices through the style of offense, head coach, geography—or even weather.

“One day we were riding to school and it was about 42 degrees and Johnny was complaining about how cold it was,” said the dad. “And I said, ‘well, we might as well rule out any school north of the Mason-Dixon Line.’”

One school they ruled out was Michigan, where Scot Loeffler was quarterbacks coach, even though they liked him. Ironic that Loeffler is now his position coach.

Because he was a coach himself --- John would take over from Kerwin as Trinity head coach in 2007 --- he didn’t want to mislead the recruiters or waste their time. He made it a point to contact each school and let them know Johnny had taken them off of his list.

“I didn’t think it was fair,” he said.

So the finalists were Texas, Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Georgia Tech.

* * *

When the decision was made in the summer before Johnny’s senior year and the choice was Texas, the Brantleys didn’t want to string anybody along. They also knew Johnny had a big senior year coming up with another chance to win the state. Both his dad and his mom Karen wanted their son to have a normal high school experience and so they all decided he would not report early.

Some people deduced that since his uncle was a famous Gator and NFL linebacker for the Bucs and his dad was a quarterback for UF that Johnny would be a slam dunk to choose Florida.

But sly old Mack Brown and his defensive coordinator Gene Chizik kept the Eyes of Texas upon him --- Chizik being a former UF teammate of Kerwin’s --- and lo and behold the Longhorns hooked one of the nation’s top quarterback prospects right out of the shadow of “The Swamp.”

“Great guy,” Brantley the dad said of Brown.

That settled, Trinity went about trying to win another state title, but fell one game short --- due in no part to Johnny Brantley, who was the Gatorade National Player of the Year in 2006. He finished his career 27-1 record as a starter and broke the state record for career touchdown passes with 99. One of the two co-owners of that mark was Tim Tebow.

The trips to Austin began and Johnny was blown away by the great facilities.

* * *

If you want to hear a good sermon on The Gator Nation sometime, ask John Brantley III how he has benefited from his connections as a player at Florida.  As an insurance executive, he is a prime example. Anybody who plans to stay In Florida and do business, he said, should remember that.

Yet never once did he try to talk his son out of going to Texas.

Meanwhile, Urban Meyer didn’t give up. Doc Holliday, now the head coach at Marshall, began showing up at the Brantleys almost as regularly as the mail woman.

For all the bad rep coaches get about recruiting, John Brantley III gives them a ringing endorsement. Virtually all of there were polite, gentlemanly and honest. He claims nobody made any untoward gestures or dishonest offers.

“I was really impressed with how hard they worked and how they did their homework,” Brantley said. “In fact one assistant coach at Clemson, even though he knew Johnny wasn’t coming there, did such an impressive job that I wrote Coach (Tommy) Bowden a letter saying how impressed I was.”

Meanwhile, after returning from Texas on his fourth trip, Johnny Brantley began realizing something. He just wasn’t a Texan. When his father picked up at the airport, he realized something was different. Johnny had said he felt like a bit of an outsider.

Looking back on it, JB III, the father, thinks making the tape and sending it out was a wise move. “Any father who thinks his son has a chance of playing college ball should do that if he’s at all able,” said Brantley.

After all that work and Johnny Brantley’s circuitous route led him back to Gainesville.

Despite the fact it was a roundabout way of getting there, John III feels good about the decision and felt the experience was well worth the time and effort.

In the final analysis, however, the Gator genes had kicked in.

About the author

BuddyShow

Buddy Martin is the author of seven books, including Urban Meyer's authorized biography, and was a recipient of an Emmy while working for CBS Sports on "The NFL Today." The native son of Ocala and Florida-educated journalist is the former sports editor of the New York Daily News, Denver Post, St. Petersburg Times and Florida Today. He has won more than 165 state and national awards for writing and editing. "Urban's Way" (St. Martin's Press) is now out in paperback. It can be purchased at all major book stores or by writing Buddy at buddyshow@aol.com.

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