For freshman walk-on wide receiver Brad Busby, the decision to
move from Tobacco Country to The Farm wasn't void of distractions. A
high-academic program on the East Coast and Stanford's arch-nemesis were both
creating a buzz around the talented athlete.
“I got a lot of
attention from the Ivy League schools and actually committed to Harvard, but
then Stanford came into the mix,” Busby said. “After that, it was between
Harvard and Stanford, but then Cal jumped in at the last
second because my cousin played there.”
Busby hails from Wilmington,
North Carolina, where he graduated from
John
T. Hoggard High School. His mother, Kathy, grew up in Los Altos and is the
sister of Los Altos Hills resident Brad Lyman, who played collegiately at UCLA
and spent two seasons with the Houston Oilers in the early
70’s.
Lyman’s son, Chase Lyman, made his mark on Bay Area football after
starring at St. Francis High (Mountain
View) and being named the San Jose Mercury News Male Athlete of the Year in 2000. After the Stanford Football staff at
the time managed royally to botch his recruitment, much to the bitter chagrin of
Chuck Taylor Grove crowd, Chase went on to play four prolific seasons at Cal and was selected by the New Orleans Saints in the fourth round of the 2005 NFL
Draft.
“Chase is eight years older than I am and I always looked up
to him,” said Busby. “I only have a younger sister, but Chase was like my older
brother. I looked up to him like he was the greatest thing that ever walked the
earth.”
Of course, the respected opinion of a role model weighed heavily on Busby’s young
mind, but in the end Stanford was the “right choice”. And when the news broke
that Busby would be a Cardinal, his extended family were as accepting as any
rival clan could be.
“They've been nice, but [Chase] does give me a little bit of crap
about it,” Busby laughed. “When I told him I was going to Stanford he said,
‘Congratulations Brad, but we aren't talking anymore.’ But he was actually very
close to going to Stanford too, so they have a lot of respect for the school,
being from around here. Maybe not the most love, but they are going to have to
(warm up) now that I'm here.”
Busby wears No. 22, which he currently shares with veterean
free safety and team tri-captain Bo McNally, and is lining up at receiver during Stanford training
camp. But the wideout position is a spot to which he is transitioning back
after starting as an option-quarterback his senior year of high
school.
“I had always switched back and forth in high school, but it was a
little bit easier because there is not as much stuff you have to deal with,”
said Busby, comparing the shift back to receiver at the NCAA level. “Once I got
up here, I thought ‘Sure I can play receiver again.’ But when I get out here
there is a lot of stuff I haven't done in a long time, or ever, because of the
speed of the college game. So it's a little bit easier said than
done.”
Busby ran for 1,226 yards and 17 touchdowns during his final prep campaign
while also throwing for 917 yards and seven scores. He registered only one
reception he senior season, but it went for a 32-yard touchdown. Busby started
at wide receiver his junior year and helped lead Hoggard High to a 15-0 record
and a 4A State Championship. With a cumulative 4.75 GPA to complete his
high school tenure, Busby was honored as the North Carolina Athletic Association
Scholar Athlete of the Year.
“Stanford is the perfect academic school and I really like the
environment out here,” said Busby, who scored an impressive 2000 on the
three-part SAT. “At Stanford there is unlimited potential. Pac-10 is big-time
and I'm not saying that the Ivy League doesn't have great football or academics,
because it does, but it's not 1920 anymore.”
Leisure time away from football might place Busby’s head in a
book. He is an avid reader and is currently thumbing through a novel by Pat
Conway – a Southern author from South Carolina. Busby believes that his passion for reading
will eventually help him discover a major at
Stanford.
“Actually Sam [Knapp] and I were talking about [declaring] and
he's more of a math guy, but I'm more of a fuzzy guy, on the left side,” he
said. “I like literature and history and psychology, but I really have no idea
yet. I already took sports psychology and anthropology this summer and I enjoyed
them, but I'm just going to keep doing the sampling stuff for
now.”
Busby admits that he has plenty to think about at the moment,
prior to his initial academic school year getting underway. The
constant grind of adjusting from high school to college football hasn't been
surprising to Busby, but only confirmed his suspicions.
“They said you are going to go from the best player on your team
to where everybody is better than you,” he said. “I thought that was probably
true, but they were just saying that to get me motivated. But that really is the truth. Whether you are the
worst player out here or not, you realize that all of these guys are
good.”
Busby understands that he must improve upon his receiving skill
set to have a chance at making the travel team this year. There isn't just one
area he is focused on, but many.
“The speed of the game has changed so much that first of all you
have to get off the line,” he stated. “The press coverage is a big thing to work
on. We've also been having some trouble as a receiving group catching the ball
recently, so getting plenty of reps with that is important. Route-running is
also a big thing because you don't have to be the fastest or strongest guy to
get open.”
Busby’s cousin Chase still lives in the area and works in
Palo Alto with a
real estate firm. The Bootleg was curious to know if the former NFL player
provides the receiving apprentice with any tips from the
pros.
“He actually has some old cut-up NFL tapes of all the top
receivers and he'll let me borrow those,” said Busby. “But I would say I could
watch his tape and learn a few things. But we don't talk about football stuff
too much. He is very supportive and it's good to know somebody that's been
through it.”
Busby is aware of the Cardinal's shortcomings at the receiver
position the past few years. He recognizes that he must be completely prepared
at all times in order to capitalize on any opportunity that could present
itself.
“At Stanford the last few years there hasn't been a whole lot of
depth at the receiver position,” he said. “They (the staff) were really excited
when we got in and they counted 11 guys playing receiver. But now Marcus Rance
is out and there are guys everyday that are out with something, so at first you
are thinking 11 total and only traveling six, but 11 goes down to six pretty
quickly. And I'm not saying it's going to happen, but you definitely have to be
ready. It changes everyday so you have to be prepared because if you get called
on, there are no excuses.”
Coming from the South, where life runs at a slower pace, Busby is
enjoying the upbeat and diverse West Coast
atmosphere.
“I can't get on the train back home and go see a Major League
Baseball game or see a really cool city like San
Francisco,” he stated. “There are so many
different things to do out here in California. The reason I came out here is to
get a new experience. I could have just gone to the University of North Carolina, but that would have been
the easy way out.
“I didn't come out here because I didn't like home. You can come
out here to appreciate a new place, but also gain a better appreciation of where
you came from.”
While some kids try to avoid giving parental props, Busby couldn't
talk about getting to where he is today without the guidance and influence of
his mother and father.
“My mom, all of her nagging about schoolwork…I would say I would
have done it anyway, but she's probably what got me into this place,” said
Busby, whose mother attended UCLA. “Doing your schoolwork really opens up
opportunities and without that I wouldn't be here.
“My dad (a UNC graduate) was the best dad you could have growing
up. He was supportive, but would tell me when I screwed up. He would always
have memos written to me after games, being very philosophical, but he wasn't an
obsessive dad that tried to live vicariously through me. He doesn't expect me to
be the best player ever, but he's been really
supportive.”
It is obvious where the Busbys' allegiance will lie when the 2009
football season commences, but there may be no influencing Chase Lyman whom to
cheer for when the Big Game comes on November 21.
“He is going to root for
Cal
,” Busby said. “It is what it
is.”
Editor's Bonus
Notes: