A wide receiver has to be fearless, period. Flying across the middle of a football field into a sea of giant defenders and trying to snag a bullet pass out of the sky takes some serious guts.
Case in point: UCLA’s Brandon Breazell.
The senior was on the wrong end of a vicious hit accidentally delivered by his own teammate, Bruin tight end Logan Paulsen, after an interception in the Sept. 8 game against BYU. The 252-pound Paulsen hit the 162-pound Breazell so hard that it cracked the receiver’s teeth and caused a concussion.
“It was one of the hardest hits ever that I’ve seen,” Breazell said.
And just days later after dental surgery, there was no way that Breazell could have an impact in UCLA’s next game at Utah, right?
Wrong.
Breazell caught six balls for 121 yards against the Utes, both career highs. His 49-yard reception in the second quarter led to the Bruins’ only red-zone trip of the day. On a gloomy day in Salt Lake City, Breazell was one bright spot for the Bruins.
Coach Karl Dorrell said the obvious in his Monday press conference after the game.
“None of you guys could have done (what Breazell did),” Dorrell said to reporters. “And neither could I.”
Breazell said the key was not thinking about the injury during the Utah game.
“You can’t play with anything on your mind but football, because then you lose focus. You just have to block everything outside football out,” Breazell said.
Maybe the injuries sharpen Breazell’s focus; he said that his teammates and coaches joke that he always plays better when he’s injured.
At first Breazell didn’t want to watch the tape and relive the crushing hit, but he did, just a day later in the team’s film session.
When asked if the tape scared him about stepping back onto a football field, Breazell shot back without hesitation.
“No, nothing scares me,” Breazell said. “You just have to play with heart. You can’t worry about getting hit across the middle.
“That’s my mentality, that’s where I come from.”
There are still some lingering affects from the injury, Breazell said that he’s a little sore and he’s had some difficulty talking because of his new teeth.
It’s unlikely that those minor injuries will slow down Breazell. The Fresno native is on pace to his first 1,000-yard season at UCLA, pretty impressive considering the fact that he has tallied 701 yards in his previous three years in Westwood.
And Breazell is as adamant about his resolve as he is about his confidence in this UCLA team.
“I really believe that each week everybody is going to come out here and make big plays, not just myself,” he said.