Category Archives: Ryan Brumfield

01.18.11
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Coach Daz: Meet Ryan Brumfield

Ryan Brumfield would be a great get for coach Daz.
When I went to Temple too many years ago to count, coach Wayne Hardin feasted on foes by getting under-recruited running backs, mostly from the Philadelphia area, who had a chip on their shoulders.
They were really too many to mention here, but I’ll try:

“You hate to say the word ‘unstoppable,’ but that’s what Ryan is. He likes the challenges. The more he gets challenged, the better he plays. But what you like most about Ryan is that he’s a great kid. Here’s a kid that has every right to have an ego, and he doesn’t. He gets along with everyone. It’s why his teammates don’t only want to play with him — they want to play for him.”
_ Tom Barr, head coach, Owen J. Roberts

Kevin Duckett (Northeast), Sherman Myers (Coatesville), Anthony Anderson, Jim Brown (Hardin: “I like that name”), Harold Harmon, Henry Hynoski (Mount Carmel), Zach Dixon, Mark Bright (William Tennent), etc., etc., etc.
It’s funny. The schools who didn’t want those guys could not stop those guys.
Myers scored five touchdowns in a 49-17 win over a Syracuse bowl-bound team (that included future NFLers Joe Morris and Art Monk).
Bright won the MVP in the Garden State bowl against a very good Cal team.
Anderson had a good career with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Dixon was a 1,000-yard rusher at Temple (and Raheem Brock’s biological father).

All showed flashes of greatness at Temple.
Chip, meet shoulder.
Hardin had great running backs and great quarterbacks.
That’s not the whole key to winning, but it’s a good place to start.
Temple’s got a great running back now in Bernard Pierce.
When he’s on the field, he’s the best Temple running back I’ve ever seen and that includes Paul Palmer, the 1986 Heisman Trophy runnerup (sorry, Boo-Boo).
When he’s on the field, Temple can beat anybody. (I’m thinking Navy last year and Uconn this year.)
When he’s NOT on the field, there aren’t many teams Temple can beat (I’m thinking UCLA last year, Penn State, Ohio and Miami this year). I have no doubt, none, that Temple would have registered a damn historic win in State College on Sept. 25 had Pierce not snapped his ankle. Chester Stewart wouldn’t have thrown those three God-awful picks if Pierce was in the game.
So Pierce hasn’t been on the field enough for my taste and most of it has been bad luck, not Pierce’s fault.
If I had my druthers, he’s be on the field for every offensive snap in 2011. But I don’t want to go through another year when I see him limp off the field too many times.
That’s why Temple needs another Bernard Pierce.
I found him.
His name is Ryan Brumfield.
I’ve covered high school football in Southeastern Pennsylvania for 30 years and saw maybe five dominating running backs on the same level as Brumfield. Kevin Jones (Cardinal O’Hara, Virginia Tech, Detroit Lions) was one. Bill Foley (Father Judge, Southern Mississippi), Barry Compton (Central Bucks West, Pitt) and Pierce (Glen Mills, Temple) all put up staggering numbers.

Our current backup, while good, is 5-5, 150. He wore down last year. Even Stevie Wonder could see that

They were all special in their own way.
Trust me. Brumfield belongs with them and he might be the very best (and I’m partial to old-school guys).
Brumfield is the second all-time leading running back in the history of Pennsylvania. Defenses geared to stop him and they could not.
Yet he’s seriously under-recruited, much like Hardin’s stars were.
His only scholarship offer, so far, is Buffalo.
He is slightly smaller than Pierce (5-10 vs. 6-foot) and lighter (180 vs. 218) but he’s got the same speed (4.4-40), vision and power. He has the talent to make us forget about Pierce (ouch, it hurt typing that because I’m the biggest Pierce fan there is) but AT THE VERY MINIMUM he provides an insurance policy for Pierce we don’t currently have. Most of all, he is a character kid, a wonderful person and teammate.
Our current backup, while good, is 5-5, 150. He wore down last year. Even Stevie Wonder could see that.
This kid, Brumfield, does not wear down.
Unless we sign Bradenton Southeast’s Jared Williams, I don’t know if there is a guy out there who is that insurance policy.
Brumfield would be provide at least that.
Coach Daz, he’s worth a look and a long, hard one at that.

11.27.10
by

Al Golden can fix his team with one phone call

The Brumfield File:

  • No. 2 all-time rusher in Pennsylvania history with 8,595 yards;
  • Averaged 9.79 yards per carry against defenses designed to stop him;
  • Over 100 TDs for his career;
  • A 3.0 GPA;
Quotable:
“You hate to say the word ‘unstoppable,’ but that’s what Ryan is. He likes the challenges. The more he gets challenged, the better he plays. But what you like most about Ryan is that he’s a great kid. Here’s a kid that has every right to have an ego, and he doesn’t. He gets along with everyone. It’s why his teammates don’t only want to play with him — they want to play for him.”


_Tom Barr, head coach, Owen J. Roberts

Sometimes numbers mean nothing.
Sometimes the numbers all add up and the mathematical formula is pretty clear.
I found some numbers that were pretty fascinating over the last few days and I just want to share some here.
They tell the story of why this Temple season has a different, more hollow, feel for me than last year did.
They also show me the equation for getting the Owls out of this morass.
Temple football by the numbers:

  • Al Golden is 0-14 against MAC teams with a winning record;
  • Al Golden’s two most impressive non-MAC wins were against Navy last year and against UConn this season;
  • Against Navy last year, Bernard Pierce went for 268 yards and two touchdowns with a pretty anemic passing attack on his side;
  • Against UConn this year, Bernard Pierce went for 179 yards with three touchdowns (again, with an anemic passer).

So who is most responsible for Temple’s success?
Al Golden or Bernard Pierce?
Certainly, you can make a case for Bernard Pierce to date.
Going forward, to use a term Al Golden fancies, going forward, Al Golden is most responsible for Temple’s success.
That’s because the one thing he can supply is out there for the taking.
Bernard Pierce. Or at least a Bernard Pierce clone.
Certainly, we’d all like to see the Bernard Pierce of last year show up for his junior season (and the bowl game if the Owls are lucky enough to secure one).
What Al Golden failed to do “going backward” was make sure the Owls had a running back with Pierce’s ability or close to it backing up Bernard should Bernard have gone down.
Let’s face it.
Bernard had some injury issues after last year ended. Temple should have been better prepared than to replace him with a 5-5, 150-pound guy, no matter how good that 5-5, 150-pounder was.
The No. 1 running back recruit was a guy named Myron Ross (now Myron Myles) out of Wissahickon. Myron’s a nice back, like Matty Brown, a nice back, not a Gosh-darn superstar.
I don’t think Myron Myles on his best day can give Temple going forward what Matty Brown did.
And that, quite frankly, wasn’t enough against Ohio and Miami.
And it won’t be enough going forward.
He struggled to go over 1,000 yards in his senior year at Wissahickon.
Bernard Pierce was a Gosh-darn superstar, a 2,000-yard back, at Glen Mills.
We all kind of knew he would be something special in college.
So what Al Golden can do going forward is get me another Bernard Pierce as an insurance policy should the real one go down.
Short of cloning Bernard and waiting 18 years for the gestation period, I have a sure-fire answer:
Ryan Brumfield of Owen J. Roberts.
Brumfield, like Pierce, is a gosh-darn superstar.
I wrote about this kid in Friday’s Inquirer.
He’s five inches taller than Matty Brown (5-10) and 30 pounds heavier (180). He’s a tenth of a second faster (4.4 compared to 4.5) and he’s a lot shiftier and stronger. He’s not quite Bernard (6-0, 218) but he’s proven to be more durable.
Think a bigger version of Paul Palmer and that’s what I’m talking about.
Brumfield has an offer on the table from Buffalo (Al Golden, I beg you, please don’t let this kid go to Buffalo) and “interest” from Pitt, Penn State and Rutgers.
If Temple gets involved now, the Owls can have him.
The Owls should get him.
Temple needs Brumfield and Brumfield needs Temple.
That’s a one plus one that adds up to two superstar runners for the Owls.