Brandon Gant doesn’t care that the Western State College of Colorado football program has had nine straight losing seasons.

The Vintage High senior — who endured 1-9 seasons with the Crushers the last two years — signed a national letter-of-intent last month to play for a NCAA Division II program that hasn’t won more than three games a year since 2005, finishing 1-10 in both 2010 and 2007.

Gant — who also looked into Portland State and Pacific University in Oregon, and Southern Utah — said Western State is the ideal place for him because as it is one of fewer than 10 schools in the country that offer his desired major, petroleum geology, and because the Mountaineers could have an immediate role for him on the field.

“I don’t want to get red-shirted. I want to get to play right away,” he said.

With a revamped coaching staff led by head coach Jas Bains, Gant wants to help Western State turn things around in 2011.

“I want to be a on a winning team. I’m a competitor. I hate losing,” Gant said. “Everything the coaches presented to me was just what I wanted and I don’t see any reason why it will not be a winning team. I think Vintage has prepared me as much as I can be prepared for college ball, which is a whole different level.”

One reason Gant could make immediate contributions for the Mountaineers is because he brings a 6-foot-3 frame, 4.57-second quickness in the 40-yard dash, and versatility.

Western State recruited him as a wide receiver, but he also played cornerback, was a very accurate place-kicker, booted kickoffs and returned kickoffs and punts for Vintage.

“He’s got some size and he’s got a lot of tools, so obviously we can develop him,” said Bains, who played for Clovis High in the Fresno area and assisted at Chadron State before joining the Western State staff as its defensive coordinator last year.

“He’s got a lot of potential. Even though he only caught 18 passes, he showed on film flashes of what he can do in a more pivotal role, a larger role, for our team.”

Bains said he wasn’t concerned that Gant would work any less because he came from a struggling high school program.

“I’m not going to hold that against a kid. You’re not always going to play for a winning program. He’s a confident kid,” Bains said of the son of Rick Gant and Jamie Grottkau.

Gant, who is currently in his second season as a sprinter for the Vintage track and field team, said he may also try to run track for Western State.

“Hopefully I’ll get into the 4.4 (seconds in the 40-yard dash) range,” he said.

 

Team player

Ryan McDonough, Western State’s passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach, said he spent the most time with Gant when he made his official visit with his father.

“When we started contacting Brandon,” McDonough said, “we asked him ‘What if this position doesn’t work out for you and we want you to try a position on defense?’ He said right away, ‘I’ll do whatever I can to help the team.’ Brandon’s attitude, what we know of him, is that he’s not big on having to catch this many passes or get this many yards. He wants to do what needs to be done for the team to be successful.

“Some of the tough games he had in high school, we want to change that mentality. But change is a process. We’re not promising it will happen overnight, but we know guys like Brandon will be working real hard to make it happen.”

Gant caught 18 passes for 388 yards and four touchdowns in 2010, but he also averaged 10.5 yards on punt returns and 19.4 yards on kickoff returns. 

He had a 96-yard kickoff return in the season opener against Las Lomas.

McDonough said when he learned about Gant through a recruiting service, the lack of a 1,000-yard receiving season didn’t deter him.

“Stats aren’t that big a deal, especially at the receiver position, because teams use multiple-receiver sets,” McDonough said.

“We look at how a receiver is doing his job — if he’s where he’s supposed to be, how he runs routes, what he does with the ball in his hands. We went through Brandon’s film and we liked the way he runs routes and catches the ball in stride. Besides, you always look at the fastest guy on the field. He helps with the run game, too. We constantly preach to our receivers to block on the perimeter. It’s a stat that goes unnoticed, but it’s a huge part of our program.”

 

Getting bigger

In the meantime, Gant has been working out with John Cortese at CTS Strength & Conditioning in Napa. Cortese, a 2004 Vintage graduate, coached Gant when he was on the Crushers’ freshman football team.

Cortese also played football at Vintage and Santa Rosa Junior College with Crushers strength and conditioning coach Brock Daniels, and roomed with him at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo.

Cortese said Gant weighed 163 pounds when he started working out at CTS in late December. Gant was still healing from a broken fibula in his lower leg, sustained in the season-ending Big Game against Napa.

The workouts were light at first, but Cortese said Gant has made good progress and is up to about 180 pounds. He said Gant needs to be between 195 and 200 pounds before he reports to Western State in August, though.

“He’s got a great build for a wide receiver. You can’t ask for anything more,” Cortese said.

“He’s tall and lanky, has good speed and good hands, and he’s getting himself physically ready. The jump from high school to college football is big, even for the school he’s going to.

“A lot of it is going to come from eating the right food and getting the necessary sleep, the little things. It’s pretty tempting to stay out late in the summer, but you need eight hours a night. And you need to eat big meals. It’s not really what you do in the weight room; it’s about recovering. When people train with me, I give them a diet sheet. They need to be eating breakfast, No. 1, a couple of eggs, oatmeal, things packed with nutrients and calories. They need to stick with food that’s freshly cooked and not artificial, or sugar-processed. If they want to eat a burger, they need to make their own burgers.”

Cortese said he tried to walk on to the Cal Poly football team. Though he wasn’t successful, he knows what it takes.

“College sports are pretty demanding. If you don’t perform, they will find someone else who will,” he said.

“Brandon is a pretty capable guy, but it’s definitely going to take some work for him to get physically and mentally prepared. College players must make a serious commitment and be dedicated to working out every day. They have meetings and more meetings. Brandon is a very smart kid who is very motivated to get better, and I want to see that he has a great college career.”

Western State is in Gunnison, a remote town of about 15,000 people deep in the mountains of southwest Colorado. Gant said he hadn’t been to Colorado before this year, but doesn’t expect to feel much culture shock since he grew up in Oklahoma — and still visits extended family there — and enjoys snowboarding.

“The campus is nice, and it’s 20 or 30 minutes away from a really nice ski resort,” he said, adding that world-famous snow destination Aspen is less than four hours away.

Of Western State’s nine new signees, Gant was the only one from California. But he befriended one of the others, a quarterback from Texas, during his official visit.

Perhaps it was a sign he’s ready to move on to bigger and better things.

“We don’t consider whether his high school program was winning or losing. For us, it’s a matter of, can a kid play and does he want to play, is he going to put forth the effort that we need, and does he fit our program?” Bains said.

“We had a good connection with Brandon. He and his family seemed a great fit up here.”