- May 3, 2024
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At 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 3, I found myself not at a bar partying away Labor Day weekend, but in my living room chair, a cold drink in hand, leaning forward so I could concentrate on the action in front of me.
What was I watching? The second half and, eventually, single and double overtime of the University of Wyoming's defeat of Texas Tech University. Obviously.
I attended neither of these schools, nor do I have any other tangential connection to them. The Cowboys and Red Raiders are not great teams, either.
Yet I was watching this with great interest. Why?
Because I am what has been recently coined on the internet as a College Football Sicko. To me and the people like me, there's nothing better in the world than this wonderful, and wonderfully stupid, sport. The more random the game, the better, as that's where things have the tendency to go off the rails.
To wit: Texas Tech, which holds at least some level of relevance nationally, as it plays in the Big 12 Conference, could have scheduled a cupcake to open its season, as many top-tier teams do. Instead, it decided to travel to Laramie, Wyoming, and for its trouble, it slowly got ground into a fine powder by the Cowboys' mortar-and-pestle offensive attack.
The lesson, here, is to never walk into Laramie and expect to leave alive. It is the same lesson my beloved University of Missouri Tigers learned in 2019.
I knew what was coming, Texas Tech, but I could not save you. I could only revel in your foolishness.
As of last weekend, college football is back. I know that the average person does not care as much about games like Texas Tech-Wyoming as I do, and that's fine. I like the big matchups, too.
I also like that, going on my seventh season covering high school football in the Sarasota area, there are several area alumni now playing on Saturdays. Here, I've listed a handful of them, with updates on their progress and a note on why they and their teams are worth following in 2023.
Battie, the former Sarasota High Sailors running back, spent three years at the University of South Florida before transferring to Auburn University during the offseason. At USF, he was a consensus All-American at kick returner in 2021.
Battie — academically a junior because of the COVID-affected 2020 season — ran for 1,186 yards and eight touchdowns in 2022. He had eight carries for 31 yards, plus three kick returns for 86 yards in Auburn's 59-14 win over the University of Massachusetts on Sept. 2.
It will be interesting to see how the 5-foot-8 Battie adjusts to the physicality of the Southeastern Conference this season.
After a quiet freshman season at wide receiver for Michigan State University in 2022 — one catch for two yards — the Riverview High alum appears poised for a breakout in 2023. Now a sophomore, the 6-foot-1 Glover caught three passes for 75 yards in Michigan State's 31-7 win over Central Michigan University on Sept. 2. Glover's speed could make him a real deep threat for new Spartans starting quarterback Noah Kim this season.
Coincidently, Michigan State also features defensive back Charles Brantley, who started his career at Riverview before transferring to Venice High.
Brantley, a junior, has been a stalwart of the Spartans defense since arriving. He started all 11 games he could when he was healthy in 2022, missing the season finale against Penn State University, and recording 48 tackles (two tackles for loss), seven passes defended and a pick six off then-Ohio State University quarterback CJ Stroud, who went second overall in April's NFL Draft to the Houston Texans.
Expect 2023 to be no different for Brantley.
That Michigan State-Central Michigan game was full of Sarasota connections.
On the opposite side of the field from Brantley and Glover was Jacques Bristol, a senior defensive lineman for the Chippewas. The former Booker High standout had 34 tackles (3.5 tackles for loss) and a sack in 12 games in 2022.
He started all 12 games and works best as a hole-plugger, forcing running back to go elsewhere lest they be swallowed up. Bristol had seven tackles (two tackles for loss) against Michigan State.
Drews, the former Sarasota High tight end, appeared in three games as a redshirt freshman for Appalachian State University in 2022, catching one pass for 18 yards.
The 6-foot-5 Drews is still developing as a football player and his playing time will likely depend on how that process goes. There is one backdoor way he could see the field this season: as the team's backup long snapper. One injury to the starter and he'll be pressed into duty at an important position.
Former Booker High wide receiver Talik Keaton caught 24 passes for 226 yards in 2022, and had a key 30-yard rush in the Thundering Herd's upset over the University of Notre Dame. Like Battie, Keaton can also make things happen in the return game: Keaton returned 15 punts for 103 yards last season and college football analyst Phil Steele named Keaton a preseason All-Sun Belt Conference Third-Teamer at the position for 2023.
I've focused on NCAA Division I players here, but the area has a swath of players at lower levels as well, like former Cardinal Mooney tight end Cameron Heald, a sophomore at Butler University.
Heald was an All-Pioneer Football League honorable mention as a freshman in 2022 after catching 15 passes for 128 yards and three touchdowns while also serving as a dependable blocker. Heald did not have a catch in the Bulldogs' 35-20 loss to the FCS No. 14-ranked University of Montana on Sept. 2, but more will come.
