A recurring series where we will profile every player on Maryland's roster, counting down to kick-off against William & Mary on September 1. Thanks to OBNUG for the idea.
Today we profile Maryland's offensive line coach.
Tom Brattan, Offensive Line Coach
via grfx.cstv.com
Stats:
Date of Birth: 10/14/1950
When he joined Maryland: 2001
Twitter: None that we could find.
Alma Mater: Delaware '72
Hometown: Newark, Del.
How'd He Get to College Park?
Brattan played football at hometown school Delaware, and became a graduate student on the coaching staff there upon graduation. After one year there, he spent three years as the offensive line coach at Highland Springs High School in Virginia, and then bounced around as the head coach at McKean (Del.), Lloyd C. Bird (Va.), and Highland Springs, the last stop for four years. Just seven years before he coached McKean, the school in Delaware produced one of the greatest college linemen of all time – Terp great Randy White.
Brattan got his first collegiate coaching job at William & Mary, and ended up staying with the Tribe for a very long time. After spending 1983 as an assistant coach in their backfield, he was the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach there from 1984 to 1991. During his time there, William & Mary made the playoffs three times, finishing with two top-ten rankings and two top-ten offenses (including the number one attack in 1990).
Brattan then spent seven years at Northwestern as an offensine line coach, and was a part of the program’s major turnaround. After major struggles in his first few years in the program, in 1995 the Wildcats won the Big Ten championship for the first time in 47 years, finishing the year ranked seventh in the nation. Brattan’s line allowed eight sacks all year. They would win the Big Ten title again the following season.
After two successful years with Stanford, Brattan was hired by Maryland in 2001. Over the past eleven years, he’s had quite a bit of success with the Terps, coaching 13 all-conference players.
Brattan has also been a force in the recruiting game, bringing in Kerry Boykins, Justin Gilbert, Dexter McDougle., and Mike Madaras, among others.
Nickname:
I got nothing.
Career Highlight:
That 1995 Big Ten Championship with Northwestern.
Career Lowlight:
2009. 2011.
Dream Season:
Brattan is able to find a combination that works, keeping C.J. Brown healthy.
Nightmare Season:
He doesn't.
2012 Prospectus:
Maryland has a lot of questions when it comes to the offensive line, and we don't really have many answers. We can definitively say the two starters that emerged at tackle after spring practice are Nick Klemm and Justin Gilbert. On the interior line, it gets a little more complicated.
Pete White, Josh Cary, Sal Conaboy, Bennett Fulper, and De'Onte Arnett all figure to compete for starting positions. We've said it before, but the most likely scenario, in our view, is Conaboy starting at center, with Fulper and Cary starting at guard and White acting as the immediate fill-in at either guard spot. White and Cary should be the main competition, but all of the spots on the inside realistically look up for grabs.
With a young, inexperienced quarterback and an even younger, more inexperienced backfield, Maryland needs all the help it can get up front to get anything going on offense this fall. They've got some experience and some talent on the line, and occasionally the two even overlap, but it looks like it could be another rough year for Brattan.
Up Next:
Our next player was a star defensive end in high school, and his brother played football at Towson
Two in a row for Terpsonfire.
Standings:
Maryland1206 - 8
kbuts151 - 6
Dirty_Terps - 5
bubbasparks -3
Terpsonfire - 3
ClickClack62 -2
T Free - 1
Terpsfinish - 1
Mdak06 - 1
clevesanterp - 1
CSB Jack - 1
Everybody else - 0