“Victory is never final. Defeat is never fatal. Courage is all that matters.”
Winston Churchill is (incorrectly) credited for saying it. Credit Adam Breneman (correctly) for living it.
The former Penn State tight end is back.
Only back, this time, is in Amherst, Mass.
And Breneman – we are happy to report — is better than ever.
Better even than in 2013, when he finished his freshman season at Penn State by catching a touchdown pass in three consecutive games, including a 68-yarder from Christian Hackenberg for Penn State’s first score in a riveting season-ending 31-24 upset of No. 14 Wisconsin in Madison?
Yes, says Breneman, now healthy after two Penn State seasons (2014-15) filled mostly with frustration, injuries, rehab and never-ending unanswered questions.
“I honestly think I’m a much better football player now than I was back then, having grown mentally and physically,” Breneman told me when we talked on Tuesday.
The numbers bear him out. Through his first six games with UMass in 2016, he has caught 28 passes for 296 yards and two touchdowns, including games where he caught 10 passes vs. Florida International and six against Mississippi State.
And on Wednesday, the folks at the John Mackey Award agreed. They named Breneman – now a graduate student pursing his MBA in the UMass Isenberg School of Management – to their midseason watch list of the top tight ends in the nation. He belongs. Again.
“I think I’m capable of being one of the best tight ends in the country,” said Breneman, not as a boast, but as a matter of fact. The most important fact is that he’s healthy for the first time in a long time, having missed his senior year at Cedar Cliff High School with a torn ACL and the bulk of two years at Penn State with a knee injury and ensuing complications.
“That’s been the goal since I decided to come back,” he said. “I want to work my butt off to be one of the best tight ends in the country. I know I have the talent and ability to do it, I just have to take care of my body and make sure I stay on the field. I feel that I am back in that form.”
THE PLANE TRUTH
Fine form, speaking of facts. Breneman hasn’t missed a day of practice dating back to the start of summer drills in August. He’s played 95% of the snaps for the hard-luck 1-5 Minutemen, an independent that has played both Florida (in Gainesville) and Mississippi within a touchdown into the fourth quarter. And in head coach Mark Whipple’s multiple, pro-style offense Breneman has done everything but put the gunpowder in the mascot’s musket.
“Whatever they’ve ask me to do – catch the ball, block, run routes – I try to do to the best of my ability,” he said. “We’ll do spread, five wide, then line up with three tight ends and shove the ball down your throat. Just being back out there, catching the ball, is great. I’m utilized in a neat way in this offense. I play true tight end; I put my hand in the dirt. I block and run routes, but I also play all over the field. I play fullback, wide receiver. It’s been pretty cool playing for Coach Whipple in this system. It’s fun to be back out there and it’s fun having some success.”
An added bonus is that Breneman has been reunited with his former quarterback at Cedar Cliff High School, Andrew Ford.
“That’s another thing that factored into my decision to come up here,” Breneman said. “Florida International (UMass’ sole win and third game of the season) was the first game Andrew started and he found me 10 times. That was pretty neat. I think broke a record for catches by a tight end. Playing with him has been awesome.”
That’s hardly what Breneman could have imagined back on Jan. 7, 2016, when he publicly announced he was walking – limping, to be honest – away from football. The Mackey was just an unrealized dream at that point. For better and a lot of worse, Breneman knew his football career was over. He had already told his teammates as such. But he needed to tell the world.
So, on the three-hour flight on the Penn State team plane back from the TaxSlayer Bowl in early January, Breneman went to work on letting the Nittany Nation know as well. He pulled out his iPhone and tapped out a good-bye letter on his notes app. There, sitting in the plane, he cried as has told Penn State fans why he was hanging it up.
THE LETTER
“Dear Penn State,” the letter began.
And 776 heartfelt and joyous and sad and touching words later, it finished with, “Thank you, Penn State. I will bleed blue and white forever and ever. I love you, Dear Old State, and I will forever be indebted to you. For the Glory, Adam.”
He released the letter a few days later. And like that, his days of being a football player – the No. 1 high school tight end recruit in the nation, half of the Golden Boy duo of Hack & Breneman that stayed true to PSU through scandal and sanctions, that first season as a Freshman All-American, the two years of frustrating injuries and little playing time – were over. Done before he even turned 21.
“My football career at Penn State started out well but I was hindered by injuries,” said Breneman earlier this week. “I was kind of in a place mentally that was tough…being there for two years and being hurt and the media constantly asking about it. Going through that, which was huge, took a lot out of me emotionally. Especially since there were high expectations and then doing well in my first year, there were even more expectations. Then continuously getting hurt and never really staying on the field definitely affected my mentality.”
Then. Then. Then. Then Breneman had had enough.
A disciplined and highly organized student, Breneman had already earned his Penn State degree in business management and organizational leadership in three quick years. For the next six months after his announcement, Breneman served as the campaign manager for Mike Regan, helping him win the Republican nomination for a seat in the Pennsylvania senate.
It was a time of growth and healing, working for Regan – “An awesome guy, I respect him so much; he’s a friend for life” – and being back home in Central Pennsylvania. And as the summer of 2016 wore on, Breneman learned that his body was no longer worn out.
“I started working a little bit and shortly thereafter started feeling better physically,” Breneman recalled. “I took a few months off and felt I could still play football. I did some running and it felt good for awhile, so I decided to give it another shot. I talked with Coach (James) Franklin a couple of times about possibly coming back and he was really good about that.
“I felt like I needed a fresh start. If I was going to have a successful career, I needed to have a fresh start somewhere else. Nothing personal. I had a relationship with Coach Whipple, through Austin Whipple. Austin was a walk-on quarterback at Penn State under Coach (Bill) O’Brien at Penn State and he was my roommate there.”
RIGHTING A WRONG
With time, Breneman knew he was wrong. Not about Penn State. But about football. He got advice from a number of people, including O’Brien, about returning to the game he loved. They all were positive. But Breneman, who bled blue and white since he was a kid, was concerned about a negative response.
If he returned to football but not Penn State, would folks think differently about him, a good guy personified who was fundraising chair for Penn State’s Uplifting Athletes and founder of “Catch The Cure” in his hometown of Mechanicsburg, raising over $200,000 to fight A.L.S.?
He worried about that. A lot.
“I sat down with my family and said, ‘My body feels really good. I think I owe it to myself and the God-given ability I have received, to play football until I can’t anymore,’” Breneman said. “Not saying that leaving Penn State was the wrong choice, but that happened for a reason and I made the right decision for the right reason.
“That was the hardest part – going somewhere else, given just how much Penn State means to me. The things I had been through at that school, and how supportive that fan base has been, let alone my teammates at Penn State, plus the coaches and Coach Franklin. That was tough.
“That was the part that gave me the most internal resistance in my mind and heart – transferring to another school. I wondered how that would be perceived. A couple of people said to me, ‘You don’t want to hurt your legacy at Penn State.’ Honestly, I thought about it and talked to a lot of guys…friends at Penn State, people I’m close to. And every one of them told me, ‘You have the ability to be a great football player. If you’re feeling healthy, you need to give it a shot. We’re sure everyone will understand.’”
To Breneman’s surprise, and delight, most Penn State fans did understand. When he took to social media on Aug. 2, to announce he was resuming his career – but at UMass, not PSU – the response was overwhelming.
“I was so blown away from the amount of support I got from the Penn State fans and the Penn State family when I announced I was going to UMass,” he said. “Even to this day, when I have a good game I still get Penn State fans Tweeting at me, saying, ‘We wish you were a Nittany Lion but am so happy that you’re doing well.’ It really means a lot to me. I will always be a Penn Stater and be really proud of what we did at that school.”
To that end, Breneman keeps in close contact with many of his former Penn State teammates. He and Nittany Lion tight end Mike Gesicki have a running battle, comparing catches and TDs. Breneman happily rattles off the names of the Penn State players he’s talked and texted with in just the past week or so – Garrett Sickels, former roommate Tommy Stevens and fellow central PA natives Andre Robinson and Joey Julius, as well as Nittany Lions in the NFL, like Carl Nassib and Brad Bars.
“It shows how close-knit that Penn State family is,” Breneman said. “I will always be first and foremost a Penn Stater, and will always love Penn State. I follow the team now religiously. My best friends are on that team.”
As you might expect, Breneman speaks fondly – almost wistfully – about O’Brien, his first college head coach, and Hackenberg.
“I really enjoyed playing with Hack and playing for Coach O’Brien,” he said. “I will always treasure what I learned from Coach O’Brien and still use what I learned from him. Just playing for him for one season was amazing.”
THE JOURNEY
Somewhat amazingly, Breneman not only has eligibility for this season, but the 2017 campaign as well – if he wants to use it. The NFL was a goal of his for years. And while he didn’t say so when we talked this week, it’s hard not to think that at 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds, with real smarts and versatility, and the ability to both catch and block, Breneman doesn’t have a shot at The League.
But if that comes, the path will be different than what Breneman had originally imagined. And he’s OK with that. Life hasn’t exactly gone as planned the past few years for the elder son of Brian and Sherri Breneman. And that hasn’t been easy for Adam, “an organizational freak” who used to have things figured out to the T for the next five years.
That’s no longer the case. He’s learned that the hard way.
“No. 1, nothing ever goes the way you think it is going to go,” he said. “You plan things out, but everything always changes. You have to keep trusting in the process and things have a way of working out.
“I’m pretty spiritual. That’s a big thing for me. Things can change in a blink of an eye. You have to realize that the plan we have for ourselves is the not the plan that the big man upstairs has for us. I trust in that. One of my favorite Bible verses is Jeremiah 29:11, which says, ‘For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper not to harm you, plans to give you hope for the future.’”
Breneman’s journey this season is only half over. In the coming weeks, UMass will play at South Carolina (Columbia, S.C.), at Troy (Alabama), at BYU (Provo, Utah) and at Hawaii. “I saw that schedule when I was thinking about UMass and it made a difference,” he laughed. The Minutemen have already played a pair of home games off-campus, at Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots.
Who knows if Breneman will make back to Gillette as a pro. But his odds are a lot better than they were a year – and two years — ago. He’s healthy and plans to stay that way.
“One thing I have learned is how to take care of your body like a professional,” he said. “There are things I am doing now that I wasn’t doing in the past, like taking care of my body — in particular my lower body and my knees. Doing the extra rehab, doing the stretching, doing the extra lifting. Just making sure my body is ready to go. The medical staff at Penn State was great. They were really behind me, they really supported me. They still check up on me today. Hopefully, though, all that’s behind me now.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
Breneman is truly looking forward. There was no doubt or regret in his voice as we talked. He missed Penn State, but loved that he was playing football again.
His final words, as we were saying good-bye, truly tell his story these days.
“I’m excited,” he said, “to see what’s next.” And on the very next day, as if on cue, came the Mackey Award announcement.
For Adam Breneman these days, next is good. Again.
