Well ahead of schedule

SCOTT CAIN
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

FAYETTEVILLE -- Brandon Holmes always was the youngest in his class and one of the biggest, his body galloping ahead of every other part of his development.
By the time he reached high school, the varsity coach wanted to start Holmes at tight end and linebacker as a freshman. His uncle, Jason Johnson, who was an assistant coach at the school, disagreed.
"We got into it," Johnson said. "I told the head coach he can't be starting both ways. He was 13, just turning 14 years old."
Holmes started anyway.
Four years later, Holmes is contributing again as a freshman but there is no argument.
Holmes will start at tailback today for Arkansas against 24th-ranked LSU because his coaches have no choice. The Razorbacks have lost three rushers to injuries, leaving Holmes as the best alternative.
It's not entirely a mercy date, either.
Holmes has demonstrated he's more capable than your typical freshman, averaging 5.7 yards per rush in the first five games and earning the start Oct. 14 against South Carolina.
Sophomore Fred Talley returned from a broken hand about that time. He rushed for 604 yards in the past four games before blowing out his right knee in the fourth quarter against Mississippi State on Saturday.
Warming himself by a portable heater when Talley went down, Holmes rushed in and ran over the Bulldogs for 95 yards and two touchdowns, one to tie and send the game into overtime and another to seal the 17-10 upset.
Right tackle Gary Hobbs found out how physical Holmes can run in the Georgia game when Holmes plowed over the 6-6, 314-pound lineman from behind, giving Hobbs a neck stinger. Hobbs has had to wear a collar pad ever since.
"He looks like a bulldozer, moves like a ballerina," center Josh Melton said. "The Lord really blessed him when he put those moves in his body. He is a north-south runner, don't get me wrong. But he has the ability to make people miss."
It was apparent to coaches from the day Holmes stepped on campus and ran a respectable 4.5 flat in the 40-yard dash at 6-2 and 216 pounds that he would figure in somehow, someway this season. Special teams. Fullback. Maybe linebacker.
Tailback would be preferable, but there were so many ahead him. Cedric Cobbs, Talley, Alvin Ray, Andre Ackee. Then Ackee tore a knee ligament, Cobbs dropped with a separated shoulder and Talley eventually tore his ligament. Holmes moved ahead of Ray in the depth chart by midseason.
"He's really a fullback playing tailback and that's what we like, a bigger tailback playing tailback," running backs coach Danny Nutt said. "In the fourth quarter, he can wear them down. Hopefully he'll stay at tailback forever."
High praise for a guy who just turned 18 on Sept. 16, the day Arkansas beat Boise State 38-31. That makes Holmes the youngest player on the team and it means he played his first college game at 17, when he gained 56 yards in mop-up duty against Southwest Missouri State on Sept. 2.
"I've always been around older guys all of my life, so [being younger than his teammates] really wasn't any big thing to me," Holmes said. "Growing up with my older brother and being around him a lot, I matured a lot faster."
Carrying a physique rippling with muscles and a straight face that gives no hint of the usual freshman silliness, Holmes could pass for 25.
As far back as Pop Warner football, Holmes has dealt with his age and body disparity.
Holmes had to play in the next higher age group because he exceeded the league's weight limit for three years. His growth finally slowed enough to allow him to play two Pop Warner years during junior high with his class.
Much of that time Holmes played on the offensive line.
By the time high school rolled around, Holmes had made the transition to running back and linebacker and was pushing 6-0 and 200.
The disagreement Johnson had with the head coach stemmed from Johnson not wanting Holmes to be pushed too quickly. But physically, Holmes could hold his own. That wasn't an issue.
"We just knew right when practice started," Johnson said. "He was making plays from Day 1. He hits, he can catch, he can throw, he was the fastest person."
Holmes had lived in Cleveland, Miss., during his junior high years but his mother, Vera Conner, sent him to live with his grandmother and Johnson in Gary, Ind., beginning his freshman year of high school. His brother O.J. Conner, almost four years older, also lived with them.
Johnson is a head coach at a high school outside of Chicago now. When Holmes first lived with him, Johnson was playing professional football. He played receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos for three years and spent two years in what's now called NFL Europe. That environment enhanced Holmes' maturing process.
"That's kind of how me and his grandma raised Brandon and O.J.," Johnson said. "At age 3, 4, 5, he was flying to NFL games. His mother was a first-generation college graduate. I came behind her. She set them up with me for education, and they got a blueprint on what to expect in life."
Football has been part of Holmes' life almost as long as he can remember. He usually played with his brother and the older crowd. Conner went on to play receiver at Indiana, where he just completed his senior season.
"Because he was so big, he had to fit in with the older crowd," Johnson said. "When he was a freshman, he was hanging out with seniors and college freshmen.
"He would go to Bloomington for the weekend and get the whole college experience, what they do when they party, what they do for academic, what they think about the coaches. He knew what to expect when he went to college."
After two years in Gary, Ind., Holmes moved back in with his mother in Atlanta and that's where Arkansas coaches found him.
A self-employed scout named Devin Bonik, who roomed with Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt when they were graduate assistants at Oklahoma State, alerted Nutt to Holmes.
Recruiting analyst Max Emfinger rated Holmes as the No. 20 running back prospect in the nation.
Georgia Tech, which sits in Holmes' back yard, was a natural for him to consider. He also took official visits to Arkansas, Miami, Notre Dame and Indiana.
Arkansas won in part, Holmes said, because of its engineering school -- an upset considering Georgia Tech is regarded as having one of the nation's top five engineering programs -- and how the UA coaches recruited him.
Houston Nutt and assistants Danny Nutt, Mike Markuson, Fitz Hill and Bobby Allen all visited Vera Conner's apartment to woo her son. They made no promises for playing time.
"They just told me, you come out and play your hardest and you never know because things happen," Holmes said. "And things have happened."
Ahead of schedule. Holmes is used to that.

This article was published on Thursday, November 23, 2000

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