Taven Bryan considers the question.
How aerial can you jump?
Wearing a dejected blow shirt, ablaze orange shorts and a babyish face, the Florida Gators arresting lineman takes a moment to accede his adeptness to beat gravity.The pounds are analogously broadcast throughout Bryan's 6'5" colossal anatomy as he accouterment advanced in his chair, giving a faculty that this affectionate of admeasurement is about normal. He is, if there is such a thing, a angular 295 pounds. He could calmly add weight if he wanted.
The acceptance assuredly comes.
"I could apparently still jump up on a auto truck," he says.
Back home in Casper, Wyoming, Bryan acclimated to angle abutting to his father's red and white Dodge Cummins barter and bandy his anatomy up assimilate the ancillary rails. So in agreement of a vertical leap, that's the bar.
OK, how about your 40 time?
This one is alike added challenging, in allotment because there is no bar. Clashing best approaching NFLers, Bryan isn't bedeviled with measurables. He doesn't watch the NFL on Sundays. He never had a admired amateur growing up. He loves football, in ample allotment because of the game's violence, but he is not captivated by it aback he doesn't accept to be.
When he learns that above Texas A&M arresting end and 2017 No. 1 all-embracing abstract aces Myles Garrett clocked a 4.64 40-yard birr at the NFL Scouting Combine, he doesn't flinch. "So that's fast?" he asks.
He's not actuality coy. He's abandoned allurement for clarity. Although Bryan carries added weight and plays a altered position from Garrett—arguably the best able amateur to access the NFL in the accomplished bristles years—he's not afraid off by the number.
"Yeah, I could apparently run article like that," he says, unfazed.
Survey his coaches, and not one disagrees. They say he's amid the fastest players on the team—yes, a 295-pound man is amid the fastest players on an SEC team—as able-bodied as actuality the strongest.
On the affair of strength, how abundant can you squat?
This one he knows. At atomic roughly. Bryan consistently squats in antithesis of 600 pounds, although he doesn't advance this any added in ample allotment to abstain injury. "No point," he says.
"I played quarterback, and I don't apperceive abundant about the weight room," arch drillmaster Jim McElwain says. "But I do apperceive that aback that big metal bar starts to angle a bit, that there's a lot of weight on there.
"This guy is arguably the best amateur on our football team. I'm abiding abounding of the players would acquaint you the aforementioned thing."
From a accurate standpoint, Bryan is a create-a-player. He is ample abundant to stop the run. Strong abundant to action double-teams. Connected abundant to abutting bottomward throwing lanes and beating bottomward passes. Fast abundant to clue bottomward active backs and alike advanced receivers in space. He can comedy any position forth the arresting line.
"He's cool now," arresting band drillmaster Chris Rumph says. "If he can put it all together, he can be article special. His admeasurement and accomplishment and assets are incredible. They are off the charts.
"He can go bottomward as one of the absolutely acceptable players that accept appear out of this program."
Former Florida arresting coordinator and accepted Temple arch drillmaster Geoff Collins goes alike further.
"I consistently anticipation he had J.J. Watt-ish ability," he says. "He's a accurate freak, and he's gotten bigger every distinct day. He's an NFL amateur now with allowance to get better. It's a alarming thought."
Those central and about the affairs afterglow about the Wyoming Wildman—the appellation he was able by Rumph. They accept one day, acceptable soon, he will be an absurd allotment forth the arresting line.
If he can put it all together, he can be article special. ... He can go bottomward as one of the absolutely acceptable players that accept appear out of this program. — Florida arresting band drillmaster Chris Rumph
But there's the catch. One day. To date, it hasn't happened.
Despite the accurate accoutrement and aerial expectations, Bryan has accumulated abandoned 27 tackles entering his redshirt inferior season. He has 4.5 tackles for accident and 1.5 sacks. (For what it's worth, Bryan is assertive the stat-trackers absent a few forth the way.)
His best notable moment was a suplex accouterment of Alabama active aback Joshua Jacobs in the SEC Championship Bold aftermost division that resulted in an ejection. (Bryan, a above wrestler, says he was abandoned arena football and that he let up on the takedown.)
So why hasn't it happened? Why hasn't a amateur actuality likened to Myles Garrett and J.J. Watt blossomed into domiciliary name at a abode that produces allusive arresting linemen yearly?
For those answers, you charge biking aback in time to Wyoming—to The Shouse—to see area Bryan comes from, how he got actuality and why his time is coming.
We activate 25 account alfresco of Casper, Wyoming, amidst by hayfields and clay anchorage in aurora and by authentic black at night. It is actuality off Bishop Alley that you'll acquisition an automated architecture clashing any you accept apparent before. It is 100 anxiety connected and 50 anxiety wide, sitting on added than 32 acreage of land.
On one end of the anatomy is a ample workshop. On the other, a two-story, three-bedroom home. It's as if the two accidentally collided in the average of nothing. The aftereffect is a abode accepted as The Shouse.
For about all of Bryan's life, this is area his day began. He would cycle out of bed afore school, generally afore the sun rose. He'd afresh arch to appointment with his father, Brandy ("like the girl's name or the liquor," Bryan is quick to note). Afresh it was school. Then, often, appropriate aback to work.
Work started with Bryan charwoman accoutrement and across-the-board partially complete homes by the age of seven. His father, who does his own architecture on the side, capital to accompany him on slowly. "Bulls--t activity stuff," Brandy says.
As he grew older, Bryan took on more. While his accompany would play, Bryan would advice his ancestor body apartment foundations and anatomy walls. He would beat a 16-pound sledgehammer over and over to breach concrete.
He was not paid by the hour, at atomic directly. Brandy would buy his son video amateur and added trinkets aback he asked. An acceptance of work. But the hours were expected.
Before he abutting the Casper Fire Department and formed in construction, aback in the backward 1980s, Brandy abutting the Navy. By the aboriginal 1990s, he fabricated it through BUDS/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) Training and became a Navy SEAL.
"If you don't apperception actuality cold, wet, afflicted and athirst all the time, the SEALs are for you," he says.
In truth, it was for him. He admired actuality all of those things and actuality pushed above his breaking points. He admired the abstraction that he would one day canyon forth these aforementioned ethics to his children.
The time abroad from home wasn't as acceptable a fit. Over his aftermost two years as a SEAL, Brandy was home for abandoned 29 days. Bryan's mom, Stacey, became balked with the time afar from her husband, and eventually he alternate home assuredly to be with his wife and accession his two children. He acclimatized aback bottomward in Casper, his home growing up.
"You've got warriors, and you got added people," Brandy says on his training. "I got into it and became a warrior. Now, I alternation my son like a warrior."
Their belief together—in the gym, at home and on the job—are acutely endless, like the time Brandy accidentally attack himself in the leg with a attach gun on the job afterwards accident his antithesis in a home they were building. A three-and-a-half inch attach went anon into his kneecap.
"He pulled it out with pliers, said motherf--ker a few times and taped it appropriate up," Bryan recalls.
Brandy went aback to appointment afterwards that, black with himself. Over the abutting few weeks, he drained the abscess from the abrasion himself afore assuredly caving in and seeing a doctor.
When they weren't on the job, they were alive out. A allocation of The Shouse was adapted into a gym, complete with a broad rack, benches and a pull-up bar.
With money tight, they alike created their own dumbbells. Each time Brandy went to a Walmart, he would appear home with 15 to 20 pounds in weights. Aback there was abundant weight for a new dumbbell, he would bond them assimilate a metal rod. As Bryan outgrew the dumbbells, they fabricated more.
By the time he accustomed at Natrona County Aerial School, Bryan was an outlier. At any affairs in America, he would accept been absurd to miss. But out here?
"A man amidst boys," his ancestor says.
On the football field, Bryan featured primarily as an abhorrent lineman, area he eventually acceptable All-State honors. He fabricated the position attending easy, application both his backbone and acceleration to advance abreast players who never stood a chance.
Bryan additionally wrestled and was on the clue team. Throwing the attack put and discus were accustomed fits, but he additionally ran the 100-meter sprint. It was a afterimage to be seen—a man alert the admeasurement of his competition, outrunning those beyond the band for a acceptable block of the race.
"I'd smoke them to about the 40- or 50-meter mark," Bryan jokes. "Then they would eventually canyon me."
In 2013, Bryan won the discus 4A discus accompaniment championship with a bandy of 155 feet. Less than two hours afterwards the accommodated had ended, with bays and accolades in tow, he was accepted a sledgehammer with his dad.
Somehow Will Muschamp accustomed here. And concluded up in abounding advocate attire. In the average of about with a blast closing in.
If he's actuality honest about his appointment to Casper aback in 2013, as the wind and algid cut through his skin, the above Florida arch drillmaster had his doubts.
His administration did too. They wondered why he capital to recruit in Wyoming—in particular, recruit a 3-star abhorrent lineman (No. 72 in the nation, according to Scout) with little civic exposure—when every agenda call was aural active ambit of Gainesville.
Two associates of his Florida agents with West Coast roots, appropriate teams' coordinator Jeff Choate and abhorrent coordinator Brent Pease, had already fabricated the cruise to see Bryan. They alternate with video of an abhorrent lineman jumping on top of a 40-inch box with ease.
"He looked like a gazelle activity up and bottomward the boxes," Muschamp, now the arch drillmaster of South Carolina, recalls. "I couldn't accept the kid advised 260 pounds."
So Muschamp, audacious by the naysayers and absorbed by the player, took the connected adventure west. With a snowstorm looming, he had to cut it short.
He met Bryan and his ancestor at the Casper Fire Department with little time to additional and the acclimate worsening. Brandy capital to apperceive aloof how abominably Muschamp capital his son, so he asked him to don his abounding advocate outfit.
At first, Muschamp anticipation he was joking. Moments later, he was dressed head-to-toe in the abounding ensemble.
"It's amazing what you do for a acceptable player," he says.
Bryan visited Oregon, Oklahoma, Washington and Nebraska. Alabama and Ole Absence were amid the added schools that showed some interest. The accepted affair amid these teams, though, was that they capital Bryan as an abhorrent lineman, his primary position in aerial school.
Bryan, however, capital to comedy defense—even admitting he had apparent bound time on that ancillary of the brawl in aerial school. He capital a adventitious to accomplish acquaintance rather than anticipate it. Florida was one of the few above programs acceptance him to accomplish that move.
"I put him in that 'Athlete' category. I didn't apperceive what it was, but I knew he was activity to be something," Muschamp says. "If he has the athleticism that I anticipate he has, he's an All-American arresting tackle. If he doesn't, he's all-conference abhorrent lineman. You don't assort guys like that."
If he has the athleticism that I anticipate he has, he's an All-American arresting tackle. — Above Florida arch drillmaster Will Muschamp
Bryan committed to Florida and Muschamp, who stepped bottomward from his position afterwards Bryan's aboriginal season.
With his commitment, Bryan became the aboriginal amateur from Wyoming to anytime comedy for Florida's program. At least, that is the alive approach years later. Because the bounded agenda abandoned dates aback to the 1950s, the academy has attempted to affirm his abode in history.
As of now, Bryan stands alone.
In the offseason, McElwain doesn't arch to the bank aback he wants to shut down. He active west, area few can acquisition him, to Flathead Lake in arctic Montana.
Long afore he was paid added than $4 actor annually to coach, McElwain was a able adolescent football amateur from Missoula, Montana. He went on to become an all-state quarterback at Sentinel Aerial Academy afore arena at Eastern Washington.
So McElwain can chronicle to Bryan's adventure like conceivably no one abroad with the Florida affairs can. He isn't from the aforementioned place. His time in Wyoming has been spent mainly in a car, active from one end to another. He remembers the night he got bent on Interstate 25 during a snowstorm, sitting alongside truckers, cat-and-mouse for the alley to accessible again.
But he comes from a agnate mindset. In that sense, he and Bryan are both outsiders in Florida.
"In aggregation meetings, there are jokes that I adeptness tell, and he's the abandoned one who understands," McElwain says. "It helps me because he brings me a blow of home."
Although the Wyoming Wildman is the appellation that has stuck, McElwain, who has a appellation for all of his players, has his own name for Bryan: "Rootin' Tootin' Cowboy Joe," an admiration to the Wyoming action song.
The affiliation amid amateur and drillmaster goes aback added than Florida. As the arch drillmaster of Colorado Accompaniment in the years above-mentioned to his move to the SEC, McElwain fabricated an accomplishment to recruit Bryan.
"We couldn't alike get him to drive by our campus," McElwain recalls. "You knew he was activity to bigger places."
Years later, aback McElwain aboriginal accustomed in Gainesville, he and his agents abounding some of the team's basin practices to appraise the roster. Bryan came into Florida about 260 pounds afore dipping bottomward to 240 afterwards ambidextrous with an connected bender of strep throat.
By the time new arresting coordinator Geoff Collins laid eyes on him, he was 295 pounds and an actual standout. On the field, he was as able as he was raw—showing glimpses of alarming adeptness in a moment and the affliction of acquirements his new position in another.
Away from it, he wore pajamas and flip-flops to meetings. He wasn't bedeviled with his phone, and to this day, he rarely makes calls. He approved amusing media for a while aback accompany appropriate it abandoned to afterwards carelessness it entirely.
"He's not aggravating to fit into a amusing barometer and be addition that he's not," Collins says. "Taven is Taven. He has a altered angle on activity and football, and I anticipate it's refreshing."
His bound numbers on the acreage are a artefact of a few factors.
First off, there's the actuality that the majority of the reps in aerial academy weren't on the arresting line. He about started over aback he got to Florida. As a result, he is still acquirements the nuances of a complicated position. It's acceptable added accustomed now, to the point that the antecedent flashes are starting to be the norm. But that has not appear easy.
Making the abridgement of acquaintance at his position added limiting, Bryan has been on a aggregation that featured a abyss blueprint brimming of talented, acclimatized players. Aftermost season, Bryan backed up Caleb Brantley, now of the Cleveland Browns. He additionally battled for arena time with Joey Ivie, who's now a Dallas Cowboy, and chic of 2015 5-star cool recruit CeCe Jefferson.
Defensive accouterment Khairi Clark, one of Bryan's best accompany on the team, has been in the aforementioned position, cat-and-mouse his turn. But he expects that to change this year for both of them.
"I feel like this is our year," Clark says.
Even if it is, the accouterment and sack totals adeptness not be blatant for Bryan. His coaches are quick to agenda this. He will never be Myles Garrett in that sense. His job, an appointment he is blessed to take, is to abate the accountability of others.
"His connected compassionate of the bold is area this is headed," McElwain says. "As that continues, his advance is off the charts. Couple that with what he puts on blur with what he'll do with his amalgamate numbers, and bodies will absolutely alpha to say 'Wow.'"
That's what's next. It has to be, according to McElwain. Because this year, with the abyss blueprint cleared, the Gators are counting on it.
It is the affection of summer aback in Casper, weeks afore Bryan will address for what he believes will be his blemish year.
The adjustment at home has not changed, and it never will. Not as a starting arresting lineman in the SEC or alike aback his NFL career eventually arrives.
"He told me I could do sports or work," Bryan says. "He tricked me, though. Cause now I accept to do both."
While home for one aftermost appointment afore his division begins, he runs the acreage tractors for hay and frames homes. He picks up the 16-pound sledgehammer, which feels as ablaze as it anytime has in his hands, and break concrete.
Although the ancestors awash The Shouse anon afterwards Bryan larboard for college—an attack to save money to accomplish as abounding home amateur as possible—father and son still alternation aback he's in boondocks at a adjacent gym.
There are no break aback home. On his aboriginal day back, Bryan completes 450 altered reps of bank with his father. His aftermost rep is 445 pounds.
Although Brandy says he can no best lift the aforementioned bulk of weight as his son, Bryan argues this claim. Whether he can or not, Brandy, who will about-face 50 afterwards this year, tries to accumulate up aback he can. For as abundant and as adamantine as he has pushed his son over the years, Brandy has been alongside him for every lift, rep and jump.
Standing at the abject of a 30-inch box—back in the boondocks area this all began, still alive on the explosiveness that got Bryan noticed in the aboriginal place—both ancestor and son abrasion 50-pound weight vests. They accept appear so far—from the aboriginal mornings in The Shouse to the long, alien adventure east to the border of academy football stardom. It's all so abutting now.
One afterwards the next, the Wyoming Wildman and his ancestor beat gravity, allowance the obstacle with ease. Until one jump. With his legs alpha to fatigue, Brandy comes up aloof shy. His shin cracks adjoin the corner, aperture an inch-long burrow that goes anon to the bone.
They accomplishment the workout. Aback it's done, Bryan staples the anguish bankrupt for his father. Then, the two warriors arch home.
Adam Kramer covers academy football for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @KegsnEggs.
