ufl
It was only just a matter of a few weeks ago on the evening of June 2, Brandon Drumgoole and his family were huddled around a computer checking twitter updates of the 2010 United Football League draft when, in the third round, his cell phone rang.
It was Hartford Colonials Head Coach and General Manager Chris Palmer. The former New York Giants quarterbacks coach informed the defensive lineman that his team would eventually be selecting him. Six rounds later, the speedy defensive lineman from Greesnboro , NC, became the Colonials’ ninth round pick at 44 th overall.
Drumgoole originally attended Wake Forest University, but transferred to Greensboro College after suffering a broken ankle. In his senior season at Greensboro, Drumgoole recorded 21 solo tackles, 18 assists, 16 tackles for loss and led the team with 6 sacks. He also led the team to its winningest season since the program started in 1997.
He holds the marked distinction of becoming the first football player selected in any professional draft from Division III Greensboro.
“Brandon is pretty proud of the exposure he has brought to our small school,” said Cody McCray, Drumgoole’s best friend and former teammate at Ragsville High School and Greensboro College. “He’s getting the school’s name out there and hopes he can get some more recruits and improve the program.”
Drumgoole hopes his story can beef up the Greensboro program the way he beefed up to add 35 pounds to his 6’5” frame. He ballooned up from a skinny 230 pounds during his junior year to a muscular 265 for his senior season. He and McCray both say Brandon’s size is his biggest asset, but Coach Palmer says it is his speed that attracted the Colonials.
“We really didn’t know that much about him before the tryouts,” said coach Palmer. “But he impressed us with his speed. The league was made for guys like Brandon. He will grow in leaps and bounds once he has more time to develop.”
The coaching staff saw so much talent in Drumgoole they were not about to let him slip through their hands.
Drumgoole attended the UFL tryouts in Petersburg, VA on March 15 where says he ran a 4.6 second 40-yard dash and the coaches asked him to do it again because they didn’t believe the time was accurate. On the second go, he pulled his hamstring and the trainers told him to sit out the rest of the tryout and attend the next one. He continued to do linemen drills but impressed the coaching staff enough that they told him to sit out to prevent further injury.
Brandon says that he dedicates almost all of his time these days to training for football. He goes to the gym to lift, then runs sprints, works on his reads and his takeoffs and tops it all off with a protein drink for the extra calories, because he thinks he should put on five more pounds.
In the little free time that he has Drumgoole likes to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare for Playstation with his friends online. Sometimes he plays Madden, and says if he were to create himself in the game his best attribute would be his speed.
That is speed that Colonials fans can expect to see in reality rather than in a fantasy game when the UFL season kicks off in Hartford on September 18.