Brandon Council ‘feels like he has something to prove’ at Auburn

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Versatile transfer lineman Brandon Council ‘feels like he has something to prove’ at Auburn

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Akron grad transfer Brandon Council (71) blocks during practice on Aug. 25. Council, who started 24 games over the last three seasons at Akron, is competing for a starting job on Auburn's offensive line during preseason practices. (Todd Van Emst/AU Athletics)Todd Van Emst/AU Athletics

 

 

By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

There was a two-game stretch for Akron in 2018 that stands out to Brett Ekkens, the Zips’ former offensive line coach.

Akron faced a pair of top-25 teams that season, in back-to-back weeks early in the year, with both on the road — first at then-No. 22 Northwestern followed by a trip to then-No. 24 Iowa State. The Zips split those games, winning against the Wildcats but falling to the Cyclones, but it wasn’t the results of the contests that stood out to Ekkens, at the time the youngest offensive line coach at the FBS level.

It was the play of offensive lineman Brandon Council, then a redshirt sophomore for Akron.

“He was a guy that was going to be excited to play in those big games, and it never really fazed him, even as a young player,” Ekkens told AL.com this week. “The moment was never too big for him. He was just ready to play.”

 

Against Northwestern, Council started at right tackle and held in check Wildcats defensive end Joe Gaziano, the Big Ten’s leading pass-rusher from the year prior. Gaziano, who had 30 career sacks at Northwestern—including a pair of nine-sack campaigns in 2017 and 2019—failed to record a sack against Akron. Or a tackle for a loss. He had two assisted tackles, as well as a pair of quarterback hurries. But Council held his own as Akron’s offensive line did not surrender a sack, and the MAC program secured an early-season Power Five road win.

The following week, against Iowa State, Council again started at right tackle but broke a bone in his hand. He played through the pain, though tests afterward showed the extent of the injury, forcing Council to miss the remainder of the season.

 

Those two performances proved something that Ekkens long suspected of Council — that the 6-foot-4, 325-pounder had the potential to play well above the Group of Five competition he typically faced at Akron.

 

“We always thought he had a lot of potential,” said Ekkens, now the offensive line coach at NAIA program Indiana Wesleyan. “Early on, we identified him as a guy that, if he stayed committed, he would have a shot to play at the next level, but obviously you project a lot when they’re young players. He just continued to stay in that projection for us…. He was always a guy that we felt could, if he kept pushing, could be a guy to play at either the NFL level or be a Power Five guy.”

Council kept pushing, even through that injury early in 2018 — which proved to be a blessing in disguise, as he was granted an additional year of eligibility after already redshirting as a true freshman in 2016. He now finds himself as a grad transfer at Auburn, where he is competing this fall for a starting job along a retooled Tigers offensive line heading into the season.

 

“He just comes to work,” offensive lineman Brodarious Hamm said. “He has a lot of experience from previously playing at another school. Just from day one he came in ready to work and willing to learn. The chemistry will come. He has that chip on his shoulder too. He feels like he has something to prove. That’s what I like about him.”

Council has drawn some early praise from his new team through the first week-plus of practice, as he has rotated mostly at guard and center under first-year offensive line coach Jack Bicknell. The Tigers are working quick to identify their starting five up front after losing four starters from last year’s unit, with center Nick Brahms the lone returner, while also emphasizing the need to develop ample depth due to the challenges presented by a season in the midst of a highly contagious pandemic.

 

Developing O-line depth, identifying starting 5 a top priority for Auburn in fall camp

So far, Auburn has largely rotated two groups of linemen in camp, and with Brahms all but guaranteed the starting center spot, how Council fares at guard could determine if he secures a starting spot ahead of the season opener Sept. 26 against Kentucky.

 

While Council has experience at tackle, starting six games there during his time at Akron; as well as at center, where he started a pair of games for the Zips in 2019, he always showed the most potential at guard, according to Ekkens, who coached Council for the first three years of his college career and “always thought he would’ve been a really, really good guard” at any level.

Council showed some of that potential as a true freshman in 2016, but Akron redshirted the former two-star prospect — as colleges often do with offensive linemen, which is often the most difficult position to evaluate from the high school to college level.

 

“He continued to stay hungry,” Ekkens said. “… He wanted to play that first year, but he trained hard, and after that, it was like as soon as he got in, as soon as he got an opportunity, we couldn’t get him off the field. He was a guy that was going to play, and he just stay committed to it in the weight room, cleaned his body up from going from a guy that was at prep school, came into a weight program and quickly adapted, and then on the field, nothing was too big for him.”

That was in the MAC, but after appearing in 25 games at Akron — with 24 consecutive starts in contests in which he was healthy — Council wanted to prove the same in the SEC. He entered the transfer portal in mid-February before announcing in April that he would be transferring to Auburn, where Gus Malzahn was looking to add a grad transfer in the trenches.

 

“He just has a commitment to doing things the right way,” Ekkens said. “He’s worked really hard to get where he’s at, and I’m definitely proud of him for working himself into this opportunity. He’s a competitive guy, and he had his options of where he could go, and he wanted to go somewhere that he could compete at the highest level.”

He’s getting his chance to do that at Auburn this fall. It’s just a matter of whether he’ll earn a spot in that starting five when the season opener rolls around in a month.

 

“You can tell Brandon is an experienced guy,” Malzahn said. “That’s probably the best way to put it. He is very versatile… and I think he can play all five positions. His experience and his versatility, I think, will be very good for us this year.”

 

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media