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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Toledo Blade Feature on Brandon Hicks
January 11, 2002 | Football
Jan. 11, 2002
Bowling Green, Ohio - BG Defensive Tackle Gets Scouts Attention
By MATT MARKEY BLADE SPORTS WRITER
Brandon Hicks has never been any good at blowing his own horn.
During his four seasons at Bowling Green State University, Hicks said very little, but made a lot of noise on the football field.
He will try to do the same tomorrow when he plays in the East-West Shrine Game in San Francisco's Pac Bell Park.
The game provides a showcase for top college seniors in front of a national television audience and an army of NFL scouts.
Hicks, a 6-1, 265-pound defensive tackle, was a consensus first-team all-Mid-American Conference selection, and was named the MAC's defensive player of the year by The Sporting News, which also named him a fourth-team All-American.
Hicks was the anchor of the top-rated defense in the MAC that finished fourth in the country against the rush.
Hicks finished the season with 52 tackles, including 14 behind the line of scrimmage, and seven sacks. He returned an interception 31 yards for a touchdown, plus had nine quarterback hurries, a safety, two pass deflections, a forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
"Brandon won't tell you this, but he's a kid who could have played every snap at Ohio State or at any Southeastern Conference school," Bowling Green defensive coordinator Tim Beckman said. "The NFL scouts know who he is, but they didn't realize just how good he is until they saw him on the same field with a bunch of other all-Americans."
Beckman, who just returned from the college football coaches' national convention, said Pittsburgh head coach Walt Harris remembered facing Hicks in the 2000 season.
"Coach Harris told me that Brandon is the best at his position that they have faced," Beckman said. "The only question the NFL scouts have is whether he's tall enough. There's no question about his ability, his toughness, his strength, and certainly not about his quickness."
Hicks, who will start for the East, downplayed his individual success this year and focused on his role in helping the Falcons end a string of six straight losing seasons.
The Falcons forged a dramatic turnaround under first-year head coach Urban Meyer as they went 8-3. Hicks approaches tomorrow's game with the same matter-of-fact work ethic that brought on 176 career tackles at BG.
"I realize I'm not going to be the biggest guy on the field, so I try and make up for that in other areas. I think hard work can make up the difference."
It must have - in Bowling Green's 43-42 win over Northwestern, the Wildcats had to double-team Hicks most of the game.
"Hicks is like a rolling ball of butcher knives," Northwestern coach Randy Walker said.
Sports agent Ron Todd from Dayton, a former BG football player who is representing Hicks, said the interest in Hicks, another Dayton native, has increased after NFL scouts watched him during scrimmages this week.
"They can't stop him on the pass rush, and all of a sudden guys from the Vikings and the Falcons are asking, 'Where did this guy come from?'" Todd said. "They might have heard the name, but now they are scrambling to find out who Brandon Hicks is."
Beckman said what makes Hicks so effective is something that can't be coached - quickness. Hicks had the second-fastest shuttle-race time on the BG roster this season.
"His foot quickness is something, and his hands are so quick that he gets the offensive lineman's hands off of him so fast - it's almost like a guy doing karate - they can't get a block on him," Beckman said.
Jim Lippincott, the co-director of pro/college personnel for the Cincinnati Bengals and one of the 120 NFL scouts scrutinizing the talent at the Shrine Game, said that based on what he has seen this past week, he expects Hicks to get a shot at the NFL.
"I think he will get drafted," Lippincott said. "It will probably be on the second day. He's a great effort player. He's got some strengths about him, and he plays the right position - because there's not enough of them."
FALCON SHRINERSBowling Green players who have played in the East-West Shrine Game. (Tomorrow's game is at 1:30 p.m., ESPN2). * Bernie Casey, RB, 1960
* Tony Bell, DB, 1973
* Steve Studer, C, 1975
* Jeff Groth, WR, 1978
* Brian McClure, QB, 1985
* Jason Strasser, K, 1999
* Brandon Hicks, DT, 2001
