THE BUFF BOOKWORM

It’s a fall day on the campus of the University of Southern California, a little over 7 years ago. Inside Heritage Hall is a meeting consisting of the entire USC football team and staff. Enter head Pete Carroll, the mastermind head coach who would go on to win national championships, produce a veritable NFL football factory, and give USC a seat high atop the storied football programs of all time. Coach Carroll kicks off the meeting, as the Trojans prepare to play Oregon State.

“Does anyone know what a Beaver is? What’s a Beaver anyway?” the coach quipped, referencing their opponents mascot. A young but muscular freshman jumps up out of his seat. “Coach, the Beaver is the most diligent worker in the animal kingdom. It has an intricate network of incisor molar teeth optimal for the mastication process of wood”, and with that proceeds to sit back down. Needless to say, the entire room was dumbfounded by the spot-on retort. They whooped it up and cheered the freshman as if he has just scored a game winning touchdown.

Meet Brandon Hancock, the Buff Bookworm.

Yes, he was watching Jeopardy the night before, but this certainly wasn’t just your typical jock. Hancock was dubbed “the crazy aberration anomaly”, as he combined his skills as a lead blocker with the brains to amass a better than 3.9 GPA and an induction into the Order of the Laurel and the Palm, an honor reserved for the top 25 students of each graduating class. “I do my cerebral sit-ups too”, the gregarious former fullback attests.

Sure, he earned his stripes on the field. Hancock paved the way for two different thousand-yard rushers (Reggie Bush and LenDale White), one the all-time leading scorer in USC history (White), and the other a Heisman trophy winner (Bush). He also served as a receiving threat for the Trojans, catching several critical 4th quarter touchdown passes from Matt Leinart, another Heisman winner. He started in a national championship game, and was a dedicated leader in the weight room.

But his work off the field is what continues to progress and impress.

You’d think winning a Rose Bowl would be a career defining moment, potentially the moment of a lifetime. And it was for Hancock, but for a much different reason than he intended. The goal was the NFL , and he was on his way after finishing a successful sophomore season with a bang, beating Michigan. He became the unquestioned starter on a team that just grabbed a share of the national title. But as he walked off that field a winner, he also walked off with a torn ACL that went completely undetected. Because of a pre-existing MCL sprain going into the bowl game, the ACL tear was overlooked, due in large part to Hancock’s fitness.

“I had more muscles than a New England clam bake,” Hancock boasted. “I was a freak, super big, very strong. And even though I didn’t have an ACL – it was completely shredded – a bro adcast ing “The Buff Bookworm” WORDS BY Doug Mortman week later, after the swelling went down, I was a fully functional athlete. Engaged in winter training, squatting 500-plus pounds, I didn’t even notice something was really wrong till March.”

If he had gone for an MRI after the Rose Bowl in January, surgery and rehab would have corrected the tear in time for the 2004 season. But while USC was destined to go undefeated and win another national championship, Brandon would have to take a redshirt going into his junior year.

At the time, Hancock was already the mouthpiece of the team. Coach Carroll would lean on him to speak at the player portion of press conferences with the media, because as Brandon admits, “I could do the spin doctor treatment,” and tackle all the issues without giving too much up. And there certainly were plenty of juicy issues surrounding the Southern Cal program at the time. Matt Leinart and Paris Hilton, other teammates getting arrested, there wasn’t a shortage of good stories. And Hancock was the de-facto press secretary. He had all the tools to be a media star – articulate, personable, a current player with the ultimate access to the team, couldn’t play because of injury, and was already great with the media…and by the way, he was a scholarship athlete who couldn’t get paid because of NCAA rules.

ESPN 710 AM in LA knew all about Brandon, as he had been interviewed many times on the station during his first couple seasons, and they loved him. So why not bring him into the fold on a more regular basis. It made too much sense; who would have better access to the Trojan locker room? He had the time, he had the personality, and he didn’t cost a dime. So as Brandon calls it, “Chalk Talk with Hancock” on 710 AM began. This unpaid internship of sorts was the defining time in his professional career, the experience that pushed him to make a career in sports media.

Believe it or not, the buff bookworm actually was a skinny kid. As a 9th grader, Brandon was no more than 5’10” 155. Girls made fun of his skinny legs, and his dad even had the audacity to suggest that if he wanted to be a scholarship athlete, he should concentrate on baseball. “More than anything, this pissed me off. I wanted to be the Big Man of Campus”. So to stick it to everyone including his dad, he bunkered up for nearly a year and became an obsessive weightlifter.

“It was a positive addiction. Kept me away from slacking off, (the drug scene), and the hard work paid off”. He’d work out at 4 am before the school lifting program started, because he didn’t think the school program was challenging enough. As a 16-year old, Hancock competed in and won his only bodybuilding competition, and was featured in Men’s Health and Muscle & Fitness magazines. He gained 20 pounds each year of high school till he went from a 155 pound freshman to a 6’1”, 240 pound senior. Take that, pop.

It was no sure thing that Hancock would even end up at Southern Cal, or meeting his future mentor. He had committed to Stanford, but had one recruiting visit still left and wanted to honor it. Realistically though, he was signed, sealed, and delivered in Cardinal red. Until he met Pete Carroll.

“He’s the consummate mentor, a leader, a father figure, he’s a friend,” Hancock gushed. “A seasoned speaker and rhetorician. Can relate to everyone – and make you believe in his vision, his concepts, his passion”.

And once he met Carroll, Hancock did a complete 180 and signed his letter of intent to go to USC. The mitigating factor was Carroll and how he was able to communicate his plan to Brandon. The more he got to know his coach, the more he was impressed by the little things.

“One day I walked into his office, and he was watching himself give a speech to a charity like he was watching game tape. I said ‘Coach, what are you doing?’ And he said he’s watching it to see how he can communicate the message better so it has greater resonance.”

And that’s what Hancock admires most about his former coach. “His inspirational attitude, his commitment to people who don’t have a voice, people who are stereotyped inappropriately. He wants to argue on their behalf.”

Let’s not make it seem like Brandon was the SportsCenter darling or the best player on the team. Far from it. Playing time was precious enough, considering Hancock had not 1 but 2 season- ending knee injuries. But try fitting in amongst the Bush’s, Leinart’s, Carson Palmer’s, Lofa Tatupu’s, and Troy Polamalu’s of the world. Not an easy task, considering how much like rockstars his more readily recognized teammates were. But Brandon just has a way of fitting in.

As much as Hancock revered the down-to-earth Palmer (who went on to win the Heisman in Brandon’s freshman season), respected the gentle warrior Polamalu, and admired the all-world Bush, his most interesting retrospective was on his second teammate who won the Heisman during his career – Matt Leinart.

“There has never been a more famous college athlete than Matt. Competing for the Heisman 2 years in a row. Dating Paris Hilton, such a polarizing situation. The team and its’ greatness. I mean, he had his own security guards following him to class!”

Talk about standing out in a crowd, try getting into study hall with your own security detail. According to Hancock, there was a definite shift in Leinart’s priorities, and in his mentality. He became bigger than the team. But ever the self-motivator, Brandon used that as inspiration.

“It motivated me to play harder, study harder, to make sure I didn’t miss that blitz pickup. Cause if he ever got a blindside sack because I didn’t read the defensive blitz package in time, and the corner came and blew out his season, I’d be devastated, I didn’t ever want to be that guy”.

Hancock and Leinart also shared the same game which took their college careers to the next level. The Trojans had just lost to Cal in triple OT, and were going into Arizona State early in the 2003 season. A second loss would have been devastating to their national championship chances. To make matters worse, Leinart missed the 1st half after getting rocked early in the game, or as Brandon called it, “he got chin checked”. A green Matt Cassel entered and couldn’t hit the broadside of a barnyard door. USC was tied at the half, and down a score early in the 3rd quarter.

But back in came the quarterback to save the day, with a little help from his backfield. Leinart returned threw darts all over the field, LenDale White rushed for 140 yards and 2 touchdowns, and USC knotted the score at 17 late in the 3rd. Cue Hancock, who caught a pass in the f lat and rumbled 33 yards to the house for the game-winning score.

“I went from being nobody to somebody over night. It was the defining moment in my history at USC. That game solidified Leinart as the starting QB, that was the first game that started our 30-something game win streak, and that was my claim to fame”.

That ability to play a role, but to star when needed, has helped Brandon later on in his career. Currently, Hancock works for ESPN Rise – the cable network’s new high school event platform – as an operational assistant.

“I can be the rock star and the rodeo. I can be same guy who helps unloads the truck because I’m the big buff guy, help lug tables around, even refill water for high schoolers. But in the same day, I can go from being the guy who’s picking up the cups after an event, to having to sprint over to a studio and go address the country on what happened. I equate it to being a rookie on an NFL team or a freshman on a college team, you just gotta shut up and earn your stripes and pay your dues.”

The job is not always glamorous. But Hancock has come a long way, and from his weekly reports on ESPN News, to his previous work for ABC 7 in LA and the Trojans Radio Network, he’s continuing to move closer to his goal. “I wanted to stay involved and thrive in media, and it’s been my passion to be an on-air guy since leaving the sport of football”. So the guy with the nearly perfect GPA and numerous academic awards – a person who could excel in any f ield in America – is the same person that wants to cover the next wave of scholar-athletes.

“Even though I’m not making the league minimum even, 380-something grand a year, I feel that the potential upside longterm (in sports media) will be there. As long as I take the same mind set, dedication, work ethic, and discipline that I used as a football player on the field, and I can apply that to the way I approach my life, then I have 100% confidence that I can take this ship as far as I want to sail it. You can’t rely on football forever, you have to have a backup plan. At a moments notice, it can be taken from you”.

You can count on Brandon having a strong plan – and he’ll be the first to tell you about it.