Spikes gets message, steps up, takes Gators defense with him
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The man knows how to press buttons.
There were tears and promises that day last spring when Urban Meyer asked his underachieving linebacker Brandon Spikes what was wrong.
"He wanted to know why I wasn't playing the way I could," Spikes said.
Never accuse Florida's coach of getting to the point sideways. There was a lot wrong with Spikes and the defense he was supposed to lead in 2007. The coach wasn't taking the natural letdown after a national championship as an excuse. It took Meyer to point out that stuff to Spikes, not to accept 2007, when he was the first underclassman linebacker to be named All-SEC since 1999.
The bigger truth was Florida's defense had slipped in 2007. Losing a load of talent to the NFL off that '06 championship unit was not an excuse. More than that, the mighty Gators got pushed around. Intimidated. Meyer couldn't get the image of Georgia's Knowshon Moreno gutting his defense for 188 yards in the '07 Cocktail Party.
"He made me feel like it was all on me," Spikes said. "It kind of touched me. ... It kind of shocked me. I didn't think he expected so much of me. I guess he noticed my leadership skills, guys just kind of followed me. I guess I was the core of the defense.
"I didn't think it was my time to be a leader. He let me know you don't have to be a certain age to be a leader. After that, I realized, what the heck why would I keep holding back?"
Why, indeed? This is the same linebacker who almost put Beanie Wells to sleep a few years back in the U.S. Army game. In a practice for that high school all-star game, Spikes nailed the future Ohio State tailback.
"He told me it was the hardest he'd ever been hit," Spikes said. "I saw his eyes. I knew he was kind of shocked."
That's what Meyer envisioned for Spikes and the rest of the Gators who weren't spared the coach's disappointment. When they showed up for offseason conditioning, the day began with 188s. One-hundred eighty-eight pushups, 188 sit-ups, 188 crunches. One for each yard Moreno had gained.
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| Junior linebacker Brandon Spikes (51) is the leader of the Gators' defense. (US Presswire) |
It also tends to build up more than a body. That's why the lasting image of Florida in 2008 is Spikes standing over Moreno in this season's Georgia game like Ali stood over Liston.
On the second play of the game, Moreno was flattened by Spikes, who let him know about it.
"I just told him it wasn't going to happen the way he thought it was going to happen," Spikes said. "I said I was going to be there all day. That was pretty much it. He didn't say nothing."
Or do much. Moreno contributed only 65 yards in a 49-10 loss that let the Gators know they could get to their second BCS title game in three years.
It took Meyer's blunt confrontation to get his star on the path to greatness. What do we want out of our linebackers? Big plays and leadership. Spikes makes the big plays feeding off a guy he has seen only on film: Dick Butkus, a linebacker's linebacker.
"When I was younger, I didn't know much about football at the time but I noticed his relentless effort and how much intensity he brings to the game. I wanted to mold my game after him," Spikes said. "He's always been my hero. I think he's one of the best to ever play the game."
Before this transformation, Spikes admittedly accepted mediocrity, letting the haters from his hometown of Shelby, N.C. dictate his legacy.
Part of that legacy is a brother, Breyon Middlebrooks, who is spending life in prison for a murder during a drug deal. There were certain Shelbyites, Spikes said, who predicted a similar fate for Brandon.
"I kind of needed that negative energy to keep me going, keep motivated," he said. "There's a lot of negative people there, a lot of negative stuff going on there. A lot of people just want to bring you down.
"They don't have the opportunity I had. I've got to stay on the right path. I have the right people leading me."
Then Spikes led the Gators. A unit without a senior is in the top 10 in total and scoring defense. Defensive coordinator Charlie Strong went so far as to say that Spikes is the defensive equivalent of Tim Tebow.
"We go into that Georgia game, we just didn't know how good we were going to play," Strong said. "The second play of the game Spikes hits Moreno and, boom, all the sudden the defense plays (great). He intercepts the ball for a touchdown against LSU and, boom, we play big.
"Whenever he plays big and he gets it going early, we get it going early."
Now it's late -- late in the season, late in Spikes' career. He has filed papers with the NFL to evaluate his draft status. The league has to like what it sees. A 21-year-old who changes games, channels Butkus and would rather do a 188 than take a play off.
"He's pretty much everywhere," Oklahoma Heisman winner Sam Bradford said. "All over the field. It's something you've got be aware of where he is on every snap."
