Northwestern Class of 2022 LB Braydon Brus Talks Commitment, CrossFit, and Faith in Football
Northwestern received a commitment from LB Braydon Brus on June 15th, just one week after the Glendora High School (Calif.) student-athlete made his official visit to Evanston. You can watch Brus discuss his commitment decision in an exclusive interview with Sports Illustrated's Lauren Withrow at the top of this page.
The 6'2", 210-pound linebacker chose Northwestern over other Power 5 schools including Washington, USC, Stanford, Oregon State, Oregon, Baylor, Arizona State, Washington State, UCLA, Michigan State, Colorado, Boston College, Arizona and California.
For Brus, there were three main factors that influenced his decision: strong academics, team personality, and coaching stability.
"The first being just how great of an academic school Northwestern is ... that's huge," Brus explained. "I really love the players, I feel like I really fit in with the guys they have there. It's a very blue collar attitude, which is something I really appreciate."
"It's also the coaching stability," Brus continued. "Those coaches are not going anywhere. They bleed purple. Having a head coach and a linebackers coach that played for the school and really just bleed purple, love the school and love the history of it, that's really important to me. Knowing that they're going to be there the whole time, that's really important, too."
During his official visit, what stood out to Brus most was the honest portrayal of what it would be like to wear a purple and white uniform.
"They made it very clear that the same coach Fitz, the same coach McGarigle, same coach Spanos that you get on the visit is how they always are," Brus said. "That really made it seem like I'm not just getting sold something here ... These guys are really legit. They just love football, they love their players, and they love Northwestern."
Brus has already begun forming a strong relationship with linebackers coach Tim McGarigle, who totaled a school and FBS-record 545 career tackles as a Wildcat.
"We've been talking for probably around 10 months now," he said. "He knows quite a bit about me. He's awesome, man. He really knows the game inside and out. He has the most tackles in all college football history, which is just nuts. No one else, except for linebackers at Northwestern can say they've been coached by someone like that with the knowledge he has. He's a great dude, awesome guy and fun to talk to. I can't wait to be coached by him."
Brus is creating a game plan with McGarigle to focus on improving certain aspects of his game prior to arriving on campus in Evanston.
"He showed me lots of drills and stuff that I can work on on my own that can carry over," Brus said. "I think one is obviously going to be leading the defense, really trying to understand the whole defense, and getting ready for the college game."
At Glendora High School, Brus has played a variety of positions, including running back, linebacker and wide receiver. However, he is working with McGarigle to hone his skills specifically towards the linebacker position throughout his senior year.
"[I'm focusing on] just being a linebacker," Brus explained. "Being able to take blocks, be able to run outside of blocks, make the tackle, and just play football. See ball hit ball, that's just kind of going to be the goal this year, try and make every play ... you only get one senior year, so [I'm going to] go out with a bang, do everything I can to win as many games as I can."
One way that Brus builds his strength is through CrossFit, which he was introduced to by his cousin Rich.
"He has competed at the CrossFit Games for the past 11 years," Brus said of his cousin. "Growing up watching him was really fun, and it just looked like something I wanted to do. So, when I was 15, I actually went to compete at the CrossFit Games, which was a super cool experience. I still do CrossFit, just not at as much just because now I'm in football training mode, so I do a lot more football specific training."
Brus might have shifted training modes, however, he believes that CrossFit has given him a unique skillset that he can apply to performance on the gridiron.
"A lot of the bodyweight gymnastics movements helped quite a bit," Brus said. "It helps you be comfortable in your body ... It trains your body to adapt to whatever situation you're in. It puts you in a lot of different positions that you wouldn't normally get into when you're just doing normal football training. You get a lot more powerful ... The conditioning part just makes playing the game way easier. You're way less tired and way better at recovering."
Beyond the countless hours of work he puts in at the gym and on the field, Brus credits his Faith for helping him become the player he is today.
"You're never playing for yourself, you're playing for the glory of God," Brus said. "He gave me the gifts and abilities to do what I get to do on the field."
For Brus, Faith is more than a practice — it is completely engrained in his identity as a player and as a person.
"It's nice knowing my identity is not in football," continued Brus. "My identity is in my Faith in Christ ... If football was taken away from me tomorrow, obviously I would be bummed because I love football, but I know that my identity is in Christ ... Thankfully, with [playing at Northwestern], I get to have a platform to be able to share my Faith with others."
Before he steps on campus, Brus has a message for Northwestern fans:
"I want people to know who I'm playing for," said Brus. "I'm not just playing for myself. I'm playing for Jesus and God. But another is that I'm playing for my team ... The name on the front [of my jersey] is way more important than the name on the back."
Rest assured, 'Cats fans, that once he puts on a purple and white uniform, Brus has one goal: to help his team to victory.
"I'll do anything I have to to help our team win. I'll play any position they need me to. I just love football. And I love Northwestern."
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