Boykin's speed, jumping ability make him a surprise contributor
Boykin's speed, jumping ability make him a surprise contributor
Boykin's speed, jumping ability make him a surprise contributor
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On a test given to Georgia's defensive backs before last Saturday's game against South Carolina, defensive coordinator Willie Martinez wrote down a message for Brandon Boykin that stuck with the cornerback.
Martinez provided even more motivation with some pregame words to Boykin in the locker room.
The gist of it, Boykin said, was this: You make a ton of plays in practice. When are you going to transition it to the game?
Answer: With 9:37 to go in the first quarter of the Bulldogs' 41-37 victory.
That's when Boykin completed a dazzling kickoff return for a touchdown that sent the Sanford Stadium crowd - including Lisa and Alfred Boykin sitting in the parents section - into a frenzy.
"I was like 'Oh my God, Oh my God,' " Lisa Boykin said. "I went from a peeking position to full-blown screaming. I was just that excited, my husband and I."
After the 100-yard return, her son felt similar emotions.
"I've never returned a kickoff for a touchdown," said Boykin, who completed the longest kickoff
return in school history. "A hundred yards on my second kickoff in my life, that's pretty great. I'm pretty much speechless, it's still surreal to me."
Boykin, a sophomore who has replaced NFL draft pick Asher Allen in the Bulldogs' lineup, had an encore. He leaped high into the air to snag a Stephen Garcia pass for the Bulldogs' first interception of the season, and first by a Bulldogs cornerback since the 2007 season.
Boykin heard from friends, relatives and even a second-grade teacher from Spring Hill Elementary in his hometown of Fayetteville about his showing.
"People are coming out of the woodwork," he said.
Boykin regularly made big plays at Fayette County High School, about a half hour outside of Atlanta.
Reach for the stars
Bam.
The word on the back of Boykin's moped helmet comes from the nickname given to him by a sportswriter who covered him in high school.
Boykin said Cindy Morley of the Fayette Daily News labeled him as "Bam Bam" after watching him in a game in his sophomore season
Playing quarterback for the first time, Boykin kept on the option and was gone for a 99-yard touchdown. Bam. It was Boykin's longest touchdown. That is until he had the longest touchdown ever by a Bulldog in Sanford Stadium.
Georgia coach Mark Richt has discovered what Boykin and his friends realized when he was in sixth grade.
When Boykin gets his feet off the ground, he can reach for the stars. Or at least the net of a basketball hoop 10 feet high back then.
"I was the shortest," Boykin said. "I was probably like 5-7 or 5-8. They were all taller than me and they couldn't touch the net and I was almost touching the rim."
Boykin showed that leaping ability in front of a coach that won an NCAA championship.
As a ninth-grader, Boykin attended Tubby Smith's Kentucky basketball camp.
The rest of the campers called on him to show off like it was the slam dunk contest at the NBA All-Star weekend.
"I did a 360," Boykin said. "The whole camp was watching me dunk."
The air up there
Martinez scouted Boykin as a quarterback, but says "what turned me on was when I watched him play basketball. To see a kid his his size dunk a ball like a 6-foot-7 guy. He was just explosive and you saw that this last ballgame."
Boykin also showed his athleticism as a long jumper. In his junior year, he finished second in the Georgia Class AAAA long jump with a leap of 23 feet, 4 inches.
The winner? Eric Berry, now an All-American safety at Tennessee.
"I beat him in regions and he beat me in the states," Boykin said.
Boykin, now 5-foot-10 and 186 pounds, wowed his teammates with a 421/2-inch vertical jump last spring.
"It's a freak of nature," linebacker Nick Williams said. "This joker is so short and he gets up so quick and explosive, it's like amazing."
That's rarefied air up there.
Former Bulldogs linebacker Boss Bailey had a 44 1/2-inch vertical at pro day in 2003.
They don't give out trophies or ribbons for best jump in pregame warmups, but if they did, Richt would crown Boykin champion.
"The last couple of games when he comes running towards me he'll do this vertical jump and he jumps about to where my eyes are," Richt said. "He'll lift his feet up that high. It's amazing how high he can jump. I'm like, 'We've got to figure out a way to use that, too.' "
Boykin came to Georgia not only for its football program, but its journalism school.
He likes to read Sports Illustrated and wants to get into broadcasting. He says his journey to get to Georgia isn't the most gripping.
"I always say I don't have this 'Beyond the Glory' story," Boykin said.
Lisa Boykin is a registered nurse. Alfred Boykin is owner and operator of a trucking business. Brother Alfred Boykin Jr. played basketball at Anderson (S.C.) College and professionally in Europe "and would never let (Brandon) win in anything," Lisa Boykin said.
"I'm pretty well off," Brandon said. "I have both parents and they support me in whatever I do. They spent a lot of money in preparing me for my future in athletics and everything else. I know they're just excited for me. ... My mom and dad are an integral part of my success, as well as my brother."
Martinez found that out when he helped recruit Boykin.
"I liked his personality, I liked his work ethic, loved his parents," Martinez said. "I could tell that he's been raised really well. And then you take his athleticism - he's a great athlete."
It's right there when Boykin watched replays on ESPN 360 of his kickoff return.
"I kept rewinding it and rewinding it," Boykin said. "A lot of times. Trying to get it to set in. Did that really happen?"
Boykin has plenty of time to make more happen. He will make just his third collegiate start against Arkansas.
"He has so much ability, and I don't even think he's reached his full potential yet," linebacker Rennie Curran said. "He's going to be a very intimidating corner in the future."
