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GREG AUMANHe leads the county in rushing, just as his cousin Tyrone Tomlin did the past two seasons, but this Wesley Chapel RB does it his way.
WESLEY CHAPEL - The comparisons are easy to make.
Nigel Bryant leads the county in rushing, just as his cousin, Tyrone Tomlin, did for the Wildcats in each of the previous two seasons. In three games as a starter Bryant has shown himself to be the same kind of back you can rely on for 20 carries and a victory.
But this is not "The Patty Duke Show," and these cousins are far from identical.
"Nigel's a totally different personality," said Wildcats coach John Castelamare, whose team is off to a 3-0 start. "Nigel's quiet, doesn't talk too much. He'll just smile, and usually that smile means he's happy and ready to roll."
The results, and the success on the field, are certainly similar to Tomlin, which is good news for Wesley Chapel and not-so-good news for the rest of the county. Last week brought a breakout performance in the Wildcats' district win against Zephyrhills, with 30 carries for 200 yards and three touchdowns. In three games he leads the county with 396 yards and five scores, giving him as many touchdowns and more yards than he totaled in all of his sophomore season. Bryant doesn't measure his goals in yards or points, but in rules he sets for himself for every carry.
"Don't let one man bring you down. Always go hard every play. Get the most out of every down," said Bryant, running through his mantras like he does opposing linebackers.
Demeanor is one difference between the no-nonsense Bryant and his always-joking cousin, but body size is easier to notice. Both are 6 feet tall, but Tomlin, now at Mesabi Range Community and Technical College in Minnesota, played at 210 pounds last season, while Bryant put on 15 pounds in the last year to get to 175.
"He ran over a lot more people than I do," said Bryant, whose favorite NFL runner is the Rams' Marshall Faulk, though their shared jersey number (28) is just a coincidence.
Most of Bryant's yardage, especially against Zephyrhills, came inside the tackles, where he proved himself both hard to bring down and durable. Still, quick cuts are a trademark, with open-field moves that leave fans with nobody to compare him to.
"They're different types of runners," Castelamare said of the two running backs. "This one slashes and turns and twists, but Tyrone was a little heavier, running at guys and hitting them. Nigel will cut away, make a move. You never have to coach him on something more than once. He's a gift."
The two cousins talked over the weekend, Tomlin talking about scoring a touchdown for Mesabi and telling Bryant how impressed he was to hear about a 200-yard effort in such a key game. When Tomlin was a junior he had 275 yards and five scores in a win against Zephyrhills in what ended up being an undefeated 2001 regular season. Again, the comparisons are easy to make.
Zephyrhills was a game Bryant said he had waited weeks to play, "a big game for the whole season." The 38-9 win put Wesley Chapel in position to contend not only for the district title that eluded them last season, but a Sunshine Athletic Conference crown as well. A win tonight at home against Land O'Lakes would go a long way toward making that possible and would allow the Wildcats to avenge both of last year's regular-season losses in an eight-day span.
For the soft-spoken Bryant, it's a chance to move further out of his cousin's shadow and continue making a name for himself by going up against perhaps the county's biggest star.
"Definitely, it's a challenge," said Bryant, who said he has a healthy respect for Gators quarterback Drew Weatherford, a preseason frontrunner for county player-of-the-year honors. "It's all about overcoming challenges, but that's how you get to be good."