Utah State safety gets second chance against BYU
In one moment, it was all gone.
The years of preparation, the hype, the expectation to play against his former school and friends-turned-opponents were all taken away as a yellow flag hit the grass and a referee made the call.
Almost exactly a year ago on Sept. 30, 2011, then-junior safety McKade Brady was ejected from the Utah State vs. BYU game. Brady wasn’t allowed to finish the first quarter before the referee flagged him for a personal foul and helmet-to-helmet hit on a defenseless receiver.
“I don’t feel like I deserved to be ejected,” Brady said. “It was really frustrating, I had a lot of friends there, going to school there I obviously knew a lot of people there. I had like 50 text messages after the game so people were just mad about me getting kicked out and wanting to see me play.”
Brady, who helped the Sky View High School football team win the 4A state tournament and was named Region 5 Defensive Player of the Year, originally attended BYU his freshman year. The Cove, Utah native competed in the track and field program, helping the Cougar 4×400-meter relay team set a school-record time of 3 minutes, 6.6 seconds at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2009.
Brady said he has since seen picture evidence to prove he led with his shoulder pads and should have been allowed to play, but won’t let anyone believe this year’s game is anything more than any other rivalry matchup.
“With a rivalry game like BYU I don’t think that it really matters what happened last year,” Brady said.
Even if Brady himself won’t say he’s looking for revenge or redemption, others will say it for him.
Senior linebacker Bojay Filimoeatu said Brady has been looking forward to the game for the last year.
“He always tells me, ‘Man, it’s payback from last year,'” Filimoeatu said. “They kicked him out for free, basically. I’ve seen the hit, clearly he hit him right in the shoulder right into the chest. It was just a letdown to see that happen and for the refs to call that.”
They hype and anticipation of Brady’s return to Provo has been whispered about by many in Logan since that fateful day one year ago.
Senior cornerback Will Davis said Brady is “super focused” on football, despite all the talk.
“Last game was a disappointing game,” Davis said. “He got ejected early. That’s something that all his family comes to see and that
‘s something that he gets super excited for, so this is a second chance.”
Aggie safeties coach Bill Busch said Brady has taken a business-as-usual approach to preparing for Friday’s game.
“Every game is important,” Busch said. “The fact that things didn’t go so well last year because of the situation, to be honest with you, we haven’t talked about it. We’ve joked about maybe staying in the game and that’s about it.”
On the field, Brady has been nothing but serious, recording a team-high 39 tackles through five games.
“He’s been playing with his hair on fire the whole year,” Filimoeatu said.
Brady will get a chance to play in his second – well, first – Aggie game in Cougar Stadium when Utah State faces BYU on Friday at 8:15 p.m.
“A lot of times you don’t get a second chance,” Davis said. “For Kade-O, senior year, he gets a second chance with this at BYU again, I don’t think he wants to mess up at all. He wants to have probably one of the best games of his career. I don’t blame him.”
Brady said the feelings of winning an in-state rivalry game are indescribable.
“Trying to be the top team in the state, that will be a big game on Friday night to prove that,” Brady said. “We want to be that team and we know BYU’s really tough team, and to beat them we’re going to have to play to the best of our abilities and play error-free. It’ll be a hard one to win.”
Utah State head coach Gary Andersen said Friday’s game is important to Brady.
“It was taken away from him last year and whether you agree or don’t agree, it was taken away from him,” Andersen said. “It was tough. I hope he has a great game this year and I hope he has a pleasant memory of this game.”
At this point, Brady isn’t worried about memories of last season and doesn’t need any external motivation to play well Friday.
“I don’t think it would mean anymore than it did last year,” Brady said. “I have a lot of people down there that are coming to support me and watch me. It’s an in-state rivalry game, BYU vs. Utah State. If that doesn’t get you motivated enough, I don’t know what will.”
– tavin.stucki@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @Stuckiaggies