Catching Up With… BRANDON TOLBERT
A 190-pound strong safety out of Villa Rica (Ga.) High School, Brandon Tolbert arrived at UGA in 1993 regarded as merely a “project for the secondary,” according to a local recruiting guide. Nevertheless, in time, Tolbert developed into an All-SEC linebacker for the Bulldogs. In four seasons, three as the team’s starting Sam linebacker, he totaled 270 tackles, including 17½ for loss and 6½ sacks, seven passes broken up, and two interceptions, before being selected in the 1998 NFL Draft.
Not bad for a so-called “project.” And, to think, if it hadn’t been because of simply a difference in time zones, Tolbert likely would have never become a Bulldog in the first place.
I recently caught up with Brandon from his home in the Athens, Ga., area:
PG: Brandon, let me start off by saying that it’s a story like that of your recruiting process which is the epitome of how recruiting has changed so much in, say, the last 25 years.
BT: Yes, back then in the ‘90s, recruiting certainly wasn’t like it is now. Nowadays, some recruits are grown men as ninth and tenth graders, and they’re receiving offers even before that. When I was coming up, there were some prospects receiving offers as juniors but, for the most part, colleges would wait until you played your senior year before they offered you. I kind of grew late, and really didn’t know what was going on (as far as the recruiting process). Still, Mac McWhorter, a Georgia assistant coach at the time, really liked me and recruited me. But, when it came down to it, [Georgia] hadn’t offered me. About a week before Signing Day, Coach McWhorter said they really liked me but there wasn’t a spot open, so would I be willing to walk on? Well, I guess I was really naïve because I thought all the letters and calls [from Georgia] would have translated to an offer (laughing).
PG: But obviously that offer would eventually come?
BT: I originally had three offers: West Georgia, Georgia Southern, and, the University of Hawaii. The guy recruiting me from Hawaii was assistant coach Paul Johnson, [Georgia] Tech’s current head coach. The added benefit, if I was to attend Hawaii, was that my mom worked for Delta, so Paul knew my parents could fly for free to come to see me. The day before Signing Day, I told my parents that I wanted to play Division I-A (FBS) football (Georgia Southern was I-AA at the time), so I was going to Hawaii—what I felt was the only option for me. Even the local Villa Rica newspaper came to my house and took a photo of me with a lei around my neck. The next morning—well, you know, Hawaii is six hours behind us… While every other Georgia signee was faxing in their letter of intent that morning, it was like 2 o’clock in the morning in Hawaii. So, I decided I’d wait a little bit—maybe until the afternoon. Well, around lunchtime, and I had yet to fax my paperwork to Hawaii, I was told to go to the school office where Coach McWhorter was on the phone. He told me a couple of kids went to other places [instead of Georgia] and a scholarship had opened up for me—and did I want to be a Bulldog? I about fell out crying right there because I always wanted to go to and play football for Georgia.
PG: So, the difference in time zones between Georgia and Hawaii is how you became a Bulldog and not a Rainbow Warrior?
BT: Pretty much, yeah. I mean, don’t get me wrong, there was always a slight chance a program could call the office on Signing Day with an offer. But, I’ll say, if I had decided to go to Georgia Southern instead of Hawaii, I would have faxed my papers in at 8 o’clock in the morning. Instead, I was waiting until it was around that time in Hawaii, when Georgia stepped in and offered me.
PG: How do you go from being a strong safety in Class 2A ball—albeit, an All-State strong safety—to an outside linebacker in the SEC?
BT: Back then, the offenses we faced at Villa Rica were very much run-oriented. So, the strong safety position I played was like a rolled-up outside linebacker. I was used to playing a lot of run support, and there wasn’t a whole lot of pass coverage. So, I get to Athens, and that’s when [Eric] Zeier was the quarterback, and Georgia had all these talented receivers. It was kind of a rude awakening for me at practice. We’d do one on one, man to man [coverage], which I had hardly done in high school, and I’d get burnt left and right by the receivers—just eating me up.
PG: When were you switched to linebacker?
BT: We started off 1-4 my first year (1993). And, I believe, it was a Monday practice and probably after one of those losses, when we normally would be in shorts and helmets, Coach Goff (head coach Ray Goff) instead had the team in full pads. He then kind of incited a fighting attitude—really had us tackling, hitting. Well, that’s my skill set. So, I go from getting burnt, to laying into receivers during tackling drills. The coaches saw my aggressiveness and eventually one came to me saying they were going to put 20 pounds on me and make me a linebacker.
PG: Walk me through from when you were moved to linebacker to when you started seeing significant playing time.
BT: It was fortunate when I was redshirted as a true freshman. That year really helped me in growing, eating right, working out, lifting weights, and really learning football. After playing all special teams in 1994, I really wasn’t expecting to contribute all that much in 1995. I began the year as a backup to Randall Godfrey (a legitimate preseason Butkus Award candidate as the nation’s best linebacker). It was about the fifth game of the year, we’re playing Alabama in Athens, and Randall pulls his hamstring but keeps playing. Coach Orgel (linebackers coach Frank Orgel) told me then to get ready since something might have been wrong with Randall—and, the next thing I know, Randall came out and I was told to go in. Not everyone understands the severity of a pulled hamstring, but it can put you out for a long time (Godfrey appeared in only two of Georgia’s six final regular-season games). So, I stepped in at outside linebacker from there. (After totaling just three tackles in the Bulldogs’ first four games, Tolbert averaged 10 tackles per game in Georgia’s final eight contests.)
PG: How were you seemingly able to make the transition so smoothly?
BT: Well, for me, it was more so a case of preparation meets opportunity. I was prepared to play, so when Randall got hurt, I was ready to go in. I’ve tried to tell young kids before: If you’re a backup, you still better be ready because you’re only one play away from going in. My opportunity came, and I stepped in and did a decent job, so I was able to hold onto that starting spot.
PG: So, I guess it was in 1995 when things clicked for you—when you realized you could contribute playing big-time football?
BT: It was. You know, when I was a kid, like a lot of kids, I dreamed that I’d one day play football for the University of Georgia. I was very fortunate that opportunity fell in my lap. So, when I got to Georgia, I just worked that extra hard—gave everything I had—to put myself in a position to where I’d remain at Georgia. I didn’t want for somebody one day to tap me on the shoulder and say I wasn’t good enough to play at Georgia, but should maybe go somewhere else. So, I worked my tail off once I got that opportunity.
PG: Was there much difference in the UGA program after Ray Goff—when Jim Donnan became head coach in 1996?
BT: There was a difference. I’m not sure exactly what it was but, if you go look at that ’95 assistant coaching staff: Greg Davis (quarterbacks coach), Darryl Drake was the wide receivers coach, Mac McWhorter (offensive line), Wayne McDuffie (offensive coordinator), and Joe Kines was a great hire as defensive coordinator. Under Coach Donnan, some of the coaches were younger and were coaching in the “big leagues,” so to speak, for the first time, whereas in Coach Goff’s final season, we had a more experienced staff. Luckily Coach Donnan kept Coach Kines—and I really liked Coach Donnan. He was a real player’s coach, and did a really great job of recruiting. But, anytime you have a new staff coming in, or even just a new assistant or two, there’s going to be some degree of transition. I mean, personally, in my five years at Georgia, I had five different position coaches (Richard Bell, Dicky Clark, Orgel, Mickey Matthews, and Brad Lambert), three different defensive coordinators (Richard Bell, Marion Campbell, and Kines), and two head coaches (Goff and Donnan), three if you include Glen Mason (laughing). (Mason was UGA’s head coach for only a week in December of 1995 before deciding to return to his previous post as the head coach of Kansas.) So, for a guy like me, I had to prove myself every year.
PG: What were your favorite on-field moments while at Georgia?
BT: My redshirt freshman year (1994), when I was playing special teams for the opening game at South Carolina, the first time I ran down on a kickoff, it was like, hey, I’ve worked hard, and I guess I’ve “made it,” so to speak. I remember vividly running down the field on that opening kickoff, like I was floating. That was definitely a milestone for me. Another was when I went in against Alabama in ’95, had a good game (11 tackles), and it was like, hey, maybe I can play here. The Florida game in ’97 was big (a 37-17 upset win over the Gators, a three-touchdown favorite). But, honestly, most of my memories of playing football at Georgia are more off-the-field aspects, like locker-room memories—hanging out with teammates, making life-long friends. Also, going into my senior season, I was voted by my teammates as one of the four captains of the team. That was really special. And, it was always great seeing my parents after every game. They came to each one while I was at Georgia, never missing a single game.
PG: What’s remarkable about your senior season of 1997 is not only did Georgia go 10-2 after having a combined .500 record the previous four years; but, beginning then—and that’s a stretch of more than 20 seasons—the program has finished a year at .500 or worse just once. It’s like the 1997 season was when the UGA football program completely turned around.
BT: And, that’s what Coach Donnan preached—that ’97 was going to be the year we turned this whole program around. Our seniors that season, we had been through a lot at Georgia leading up to that year with coaching changes and not being successful. Bobo (then-quarterback Mike Bobo) had a lot to prove, people were on him, and he was fighting for his job too. So, he really led the team that offseason. Mike really pushed the seniors, and I have to give him and some of the other seniors a lot of credit for inspiring the thought that “We are not going out a .500 team,” like we had been the several seasons before.
PG: After playing for Georgia, you were drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars, but got injured and was cut. You then go to the Atlanta Falcons, and the same thing happens. But, finally, the Dallas Cowboys pick you up.
BT: Yeah, and Randall Godfrey was out there! (Godfrey’s 12-season NFL career included from 1996-1999 with Dallas.) About the tenth game of my rookie year, the Cowboys picked me up. I rehabbed my injured hamstring for a while, and then was placed on their 53-man roster for the last three or four games. My second season (1999), I tore my ACL and was out for the year. I came back my third year, and I was really competing for maybe a starting spot, but then I tore my other ACL playing in Denver in a preseason game. To tear an ACL two straight years, that was pretty much it for me.
PG: Still, would you have ever imagined growing up in Villa Rica that you would make an NFL roster?
BT: That was always in my dreams, but never in my “forecast.” But, I’ll say, if you can play for Georgia, you got at least a chance to play at the next level, simply because you’re playing in the SEC and the level of competition you’re facing. And, if you got the size, speed, and were at least a two- or-three-year starter, you must be doing something right, and have an even better chance. Still, I was very fortunate to be anywhere close to playing in the NFL.
PG: What have you been doing professionally since leaving the NFL?
BT: After that, I moved to Atlanta and got into the real estate business through a Georgia teammate of mine, Whit Marshall (UGA linebacker during the mid-90s). And, I’m still doing real estate. I work for myself, buying and selling land.
PG: Where do you live now?
BT: Actually, my family and I recently moved to the Athens area—about two months ago.
PG: This is probably a ridiculous question, but why Athens?
BT: It was a few things. For one, my wife has a lot of family in Athens. Also, we still have a lot of friends here, including some of my old teammates, like Kirby [Smart] and Dax [Langley]. It was just the right time for us—time for a change. And, of all the places around the state, this was probably the easiest for my wife and I to plug into. So far, we’ve really enjoyed it.
PG: Please tell me about your family.
BT: I met my wife, Kimberly, while at UGA, and when I got out of the NFL, we got married. We have three children: boys Brody (12) and Bo (8), and a little girl, Brooklyn (1).
PG: I’m guessing since Kirby and you have been friends for a while, and you’ve lived relatively close to Athens, you’ve been closely associated with UGA football since he became head coach?
BT: Yes, it’s great to have them (the Smarts) close by. Kirby has been a good friend of mine for over 20 years, but I’ll admit that it’s kind of strange to think of him as the head football coach at the University of Georgia.
PG: Simply, what can you say about Kirby Smart?
BT: He’s doing a heck of a job—but I think that’s probably evident to most everybody. A lot of people are also aware of the relentless amount of recruiting done by him and his staff. It’s really amazing. But, some people may not realize how really intelligent Kirby is, and that he is always thinking ahead, like two or three steps ahead of everyone else. It’s almost like he has eyes in the back of his head. He sees and knows everything that’s going on in that program. So, he definitely has a lot on his plate, but he seems to manage everything well. An off-the-field example, after the G-Day game, there were a bunch of us hanging out at Kirby’s house before he got home, including about 20 kids. When he got home, the first thing he did was spend 35-to-40 minutes with the kids throwing the football in the backyard before he even came in the house with the adults. Kirby is a big family guy, and really cares about people in general.
PG: And, on the field, would you say Kirby has now set the bar high for Georgia football after last season?
BT: For me personally, besides when I played at Georgia, last year was the most fun season. To win at Notre Dame, be conference champions, win out at the Rose Bowl, and play for a national title, what a fantastic year! After all of that, yeah, expectations are high.