Florida’s greatest that never played a down in CFB.

[Jullian]

In 1984, Rod Baker of Ely HS, rushed for 1,618 yds & was named Broward County offensive player of the year. He signed a letter of intent to University of Missouri. He was 5’11” 190lbs. 
He was arrested in 2 armed robberies in Pompano & Boynton Bch in March of “85”. 
One of the great ones that never made it. 
How bout in your counties?

[DarterBlue2]

Kwamaine "Bubba" Brown, Osceola High, best running back I have seen over the last 23 seasons from the Orlando area. He had academic and other off the field issues that prevented him from a college and, perhaps, NFL career. In the State final in 2008 (I believe) against St. Thomas Aquinas, despite playing the game at about 50-60% due to injury in the prior game, he racked up about 140 yards rushing and found the endzone at least once in a losing effort by the Kowboys. 

[Ray Icaza]

In our county hands down it was probably Kwamaine "Bubba" Brown running back that gained 2405 yards in 2007 and was selected the 5A player of the year for the state of Florida.  He had it all, vision, quickness, balance, power and break away speed.  If you look his highlights on YouTube video it will knock your socks off.  The was signed by Kansas State and went the JuCo route but never made it out the back end.  We lost one of our most important players in the semi-final against Bartram Trail, T' Bell our QB and SS (went to Auburn) but they had no answer for Bubba.  We ended up using a LB (Marc Deas-Georgia committ) at QB and all he did was handed off to Bubba.  The following week in the state final we faced Aquinas and they knew that was all we had offensively.  Bubba had been nicked up (ankle) for a couple of weeks so they stacked the box against him.  He still gained 160+ yards in the championship game though we lost by a couple of touchdowns.  

[Jullian]

6 minutes ago, DarterBlue2 said:

Kwamaine "Bubba" Brown, Osceola High, best running back I have seen over the last 23 seasons from the Orlando area. He had academic and other off the field issues that prevented him from a college and, perhaps, NFL career. In the State final in 2008 (I believe) against St. Thomas Aquinas, despite playing the game at about 50-60% due to injury in the prior game, he racked up about 140 yards rushing and found the endzone at least once in a losing effort by the Kowboys. 

 

6 minutes ago, DarterBlue2 said:

Kwamaine "Bubba" Brown, Osceola High, best running back I have seen over the last 23 seasons from the Orlando area. He had academic and other off the field issues that prevented him from a college and, perhaps, NFL career. In the State final in 2008 (I believe) against St. Thomas Aquinas, despite playing the game at about 50-60% due to injury in the prior game, he racked up about 140 yards rushing and found the endzone at least once in a losing effort by the Kowboys. 

I remember him. Stud. 

[Jullian]

5 minutes ago, Ray Icaza said:

In our county hands down it was probably Kwamaine "Bubba" Brown running back that gained 2405 yards in 2007 and was selected the 5A player of the year for the state of Florida.  He had it all, vision, quickness, balance, power and break away speed.  If you look his highlights on YouTube video it will knock your socks off.  The was signed by Kansas State and went the JuCo route but never made it out the back end.  We lost one of our most important players in the semi-final against Bartram Trail, T' Bell our QB and SS (went to Auburn) but they had no answer for Bubba.  We ended up using a LB (Marc Deas-Georgia committ) at QB and all he did was handed off to Bubba.  The following week in the state final we faced Aquinas and they knew that was all we had offensively.  Bubba had been nicked up (ankle) for a couple of weeks so they stacked the box against him.  He still gained 160+ yards in the championship game though we lost by a couple of touchdowns.  

Remember how fortunate Aquinas was with the QB out & Brown hobbled. 

[DarterBlue2]

1 minute ago, Jullian said:

 

I remember him. Stud. 

He was. Earlier in the season, I had watched him against East Ridge which was decent back then. He racked up over 200 yards in the first half before he was taken out of the game. The Knights literally could not stop him despite stacking the box. 

[Ray Icaza]

Willie Green was the other great back we had although he didn't have Bubba's break away speed he had everything else.  In his 4 years of varsity play he ended up with just under 8,000 yards for his career placing him 4th on the all-time Florida list right behind Emmitt Smith.   He played thru numerous knee injuries thru his career, hiding that fact from even his coaches.  Florida Gators took him not knowing how bad these injuries were and so he never really was able to show his talents once he got there.  5A player of the year 2 years in a row and probably would have been the Florida Dairy Farmer's overall player of the year 2 years straight but was edged out his junior year by, you guessed it Anquan Boldin.

[Ray Icaza]

8 minutes ago, DarterBlue2 said:

He was. Earlier in the season, I had watched him against East Ridge which was decent back then. He racked up over 200 yards in the first half before he was taken out of the game. The Knights literally could not stop him despite stacking the box. 

He could have easily increased his stats his junior and senior years, but we had some other really good backs and if we were in command at the half, he would sit the second half.

[Ray Icaza]

Outside of Nick Bosa who everyone knows, the greatest defensive tackle I ever saw was John Brown from Lakeland HS in 2006.  Everyone was aware of Rainey, Pouncey twins, Ahmad Black, etc.  But in my estimation the best player on their team was this beast.  That year they won state and national honors but had their hands full with our defense at our place.  We bottle Rainey up the entire night until he broke off a 70 yard run with a couple of minutes left in the game to beat us 7-3.  We had Bubba and other talented players, but this guy was unblockable, blew thru our OL and constantly tackling our backs behind the line of scrimmage.  He had size, speed, strength, instincts and tenacity.  Florida took him along with a bunch of his teammates, but he never took the field for them.   He was as dominant as Bosa without a doubt, but nobody probably remembers him.

[Jullian]

37 minutes ago, Ray Icaza said:

Willie Green was the other great back we had although he didn't have Bubba's break away speed he had everything else.  In his 4 years of varsity play he ended up with just under 8,000 yards for his career placing him 4th on the all-time Florida list right behind Emmitt Smith.   He played thru numerous knee injuries thru his career, hiding that fact from even his coaches.  Florida Gators took him not knowing how bad these injuries were and so he never really was able to show his talents once he got there.  5A player of the year 2 years in a row and probably would have been the Florida Dairy Farmer's overall player of the year 2 years straight but was edged out his junior year by, you guessed it Anquan Boldin.

Yep another great one. 

[Jullian]

11 minutes ago, Ray Icaza said:

Outside of Nick Bosa who everyone knows, the greatest defensive tackle I ever saw was John Brown from Lakeland HS in 2006.  Everyone was aware of Rainey, Pouncey twins, Ahmad Black, etc.  But in my estimation the best player on their team was this beast.  That year they won state and national honors but had their hands full with our defense at our place.  We bottle Rainey up the entire night until he broke off a 70 yard run with a couple of minutes left in the game to beat us 7-3.  We had Bubba and other talented players, but this guy was unblockable, blew thru our OL and constantly tackling our backs behind the line of scrimmage.  He had size, speed, strength, instincts and tenacity.  Florida took him along with a bunch of his teammates, but he never took the field for them.   He was as dominant as Bosa without a doubt, but nobody probably remembers him.

7-3. Your D must have been great with all the talent Lakeland had! Rainey the HR threat! Always wondered what happened to Brown. 

[Ray Icaza]

That D was great and had a lot of underclassmen, that's why we figured we would challenge for the title the following year which we did.

[KeemD321]

For Brevard I would have to say Chevelle Buie who played for Cocoa's 3peat teams.

[Jullian]

3 minutes ago, KeemD321 said:

For Brevard I would have to say Chevelle Buie who played for Cocoa's 3peat teams.

Did he play college ball?

[KeemD321]

16 minutes ago, Jullian said:

Did he play college ball?

He signed a letter of intent with ECU but didn't play there. I'm not too sure if he played juco. But I do know that he played in one of the indoor leagues for a season or 2. Another one that played at Cocoa would be QB/ATH Bruce Judson Jr who was committed to Oregon. Went JUCO route to last chance U then ended up at Tusculum and moved on from football. Was part of the team to finally defeat BTW

[Jambun82]

6 hours ago, Ray Icaza said:

Willie Green was the other great back we had although he didn't have Bubba's break away speed he had everything else.  In his 4 years of varsity play he ended up with just under 8,000 yards for his career placing him 4th on the all-time Florida list right behind Emmitt Smith.   He played thru numerous knee injuries thru his career, hiding that fact from even his coaches.  Florida Gators took him not knowing how bad these injuries were and so he never really was able to show his talents once he got there.  5A player of the year 2 years in a row and probably would have been the Florida Dairy Farmer's overall player of the year 2 years straight but was edged out his junior year by, you guessed it Anquan Boldin.

Yes, I always wondered what happened to Willie Green. I remember the Kowboys winning the state title in 1998 with Green and the QB who was really tall. 

[Ray Icaza]

1 minute ago, Jambun82 said:

Yes, I always wondered what happened to Willie Green. I remember the Kowboys winning the state title in 1998 with Green and the QB who was really tall. 

Bobby Sippio.  Willie is stll around and regularly attends our games as his son played a key role for us a couple of years ago.

[Jambun82]

6 hours ago, DarterBlue2 said:

Kwamaine "Bubba" Brown, Osceola High, best running back I have seen over the last 23 seasons from the Orlando area. He had academic and other off the field issues that prevented him from a college and, perhaps, NFL career. In the State final in 2008 (I believe) against St. Thomas Aquinas, despite playing the game at about 50-60% due to injury in the prior game, he racked up about 140 yards rushing and found the endzone at least once in a losing effort by the Kowboys. 

It was 2007. I know who officiated that state title game, one of the Osceola Assistant Coaches was having some sort of health issue during the game, but ended up being all right.  

[Jambun82]

3 minutes ago, Ray Icaza said:

Bobby Sippio.  Willie is stll around and regularly attends our games as his son played a key role for us a couple of years ago.

Yes, thank you. Who was the Head Coach at that time for the Kowboys? 

[DarterBlue2]

7 minutes ago, Jambun82 said:

It was 2007. I know who officiated that state title game, one of the Osceola Assistant Coaches was having some sort of health issue during the game, but ended up being all right.  

Yeah, it was. I double checked it after I posted, but did not bother to edit the post. 2007 was a bad year for Greater Orlando in the state title games. Boone got gored by a mythical National Champion MNW Bulls team. 

[Ray Icaza]

4 minutes ago, Jambun82 said:

Yes, thank you. Who was the Head Coach at that time for the Kowboys? 

Jeff Rolson.

[Jambun82]

11 minutes ago, DarterBlue2 said:

Yeah, it was. I double checked it after I posted, but did not bother to edit the post. 2007 was a bad year for Greater Orlando in the state title games. Boone got gored by a mythical National Champion MNW Bulls team. 

There was no shame for the Boone Braves in losing to the NW Bulls team. That had to be one of the best teams in Florida High School Football history. 

[Jambun82]

14 minutes ago, Ray Icaza said:

Jeff Rolson.

Thank you. I remember Osceola running the Georgia Southern Double Slot offense. 

[Ray Icaza]

2 minutes ago, Jambun82 said:

Thank you. I remember Osceola running the Georgia Southern Double Slot offense. 

If that's what you call giving it to Bubba.

[DarterBlue2]

7 hours ago, Jambun82 said:

There was no shame for the Boone Braves in losing to the NW Bulls team. That had to be one of the best teams in Florida High School Football history. 

True. What bothered me was not the loss, but the fact that they did not try after the first couple of scores. The year before, Lake Brantley met the same MNW team and went down fighting though outgunned.