Quick Chat:Brian Herrien

By John Frierson
Staff Writer

Brian Herrien is a worker, a tough and productive running back that seems to prefer running over or through defenders to using his speed to elude them. His diligence, toughness and consistent productivity are why he's one of the Bulldogs' most popular players, always drawing big cheers inside Sanford Stadium.

In his four seasons with the Bulldogs, Herrien, a 6-foot, 210-pound back from Douglasville, Ga., has averaged 5.4 yards per carry and scored 12 touchdowns, including a patient-yet-speedy 8-yard run around the right side in the third quarter of last Saturday's 21-0 win over Kentucky.

During a Quick Chat after practice Wednesday, Herrien talked about his affinity for contact, playing baseball, being a fan favorite and much more. Here's some of what he had to say:

Frierson: I know so many people that are always really happy when you have a good game. Are you aware of being a fan favorite? Does that mean something to you?

Herrien: Yeah, it means something to me. I can tell that folks are watching and paying attention when I do something good. I can hear them sometimes when I run or I'll get the tweets and messages from people when they send me stuff. ... I really appreciate all that.

Frierson: Do you feel like you've been here a long time?

Herrien: It went by kind of fast — it feels like I've been here for a lot of stuff but it doesn't feel like I've been here for a long time.

Frierson: The way you phrased that is actually a much better way to put it, you have been here for a lot of stuff. What is the best play of your athletic career? Is there one that stands out?

Herrien: So my eighth-grade championships — you know Tyler Simmons, right?

Frierson: Of course.

Herrien: We've been playing together since kindergarten and in the eighth-grade championship, Tyler got hurt in the game before, we were playing against our big rival (Chapel Hill) in the county. In the first game against them we won like 2-0 or something, on a safety on a blitz, I blitzed the quarterback. That was the first game of the season.

This is the last game of the season and they're up by a touchdown. Our quarterback got sacked on something like the 1-yard line and I'm the punter, too, so my heel is on the edge, right at the back of the end zone. My coach doesn't know this but in the huddle they said he had called punt right and I was like, at this time of the game? We had like two minutes left and being down by a touchdown, I was like, are you serious?

In the huddle I was like, we can't do that. I was like, fake left, fake left. They were like, are you sure? I said yeah, ready, break. I went back, got the snap and I saw that they were blocking the way they were supposed to be blocking and I took off running.

After I ran through the line there was nobody but the punt returner left. I'm running and I'm running and it would be like 110 yards to go all the way. The punt returner was the other running back in the county that was good too, so he had the angle on me a little bit. I'm trying to beat him to the angle but I'm tired — I'd already run like 85 yards at this point while he was already back there waiting on the punt originally.

I kind of beat him to the spot a little bit but he tripped my foot and got me at the 10 maybe. I was so tired that they had to put the backup running back in, actually the backup backup because Tyler was hurt. ... Three plays later it was fourth down and I grabbed the ball on a pitch play to the right and ran all the way into the corner to score the touchdown.

That one fake punt play, though, that was probably the play.

Frierson: That sounds like the gutsiest play of your career, calling your own fake. That could have ended really badly.

Herrien: Right. [Laughs]. That could have gone bad but the game wound up going into six overtimes and we won. You want to talk about tired, man.

Frierson: What other sports did you play growing up?

Herrien: Honestly, I'm way better in baseball than I am in football. ... I hit a ball 400 feet when I was 13. My dad played baseball, he was supposed to go (to a tryout with the Reds) ... but my mom had gotten pregnant with my sister so he just was like, I'm going to take care of my family. Instead, he moved to Atlanta and got a job.

I played basketball and track, too

Frierson: What position did you play in baseball?

Herrien: In baseball, I played center field growing up because I could cover the most ground, so I would run all the way to left field to catch the ball or run all the way to right field to catch it. As I got older I started to play right field because it was a longer throw and I had a strong arm.

I could play every position, though; I could play third base, first base, the only position I didn't want to play was catcher — my knees couldn't do it. But I played every other position and pitcher. If it was time to strike everybody out, my fastball would get it done.

Frierson: So if you were better at baseball, what are you doing here as a football player?

Herrien: It just got boring for me. I played on one team when I was in eighth grade and the team just wasn't good people and I didn't want to be around it. I just kind of let it go when I got to high school. I started playing football when I was 10 but I'd already been playing baseball my whole life.

My dad took me out when I was seven to see if I wanted to start playing football and I was like, nah, I don't want to get hit. When I was 10 years old I went out there again and I just liked it. It was fun and it was natural for me.

Frierson: It's funny that you said you didn't want to get hit back when you were first thinking about football because now you're a guy that likes contact, likes running through tackles.

Herrien: To be honest, I never had any juke moves for anybody. It was always that I'm going to outrun you or I'm going to run you over. I can still run past a lot of people now, but once I realized that everybody else is fast too and it's harder to outrun them, you've got to find another way.

Frierson: What do you do when you're done with football and schoolwork for the day? How do you relax?

Herrien: I kind of just sit down and listen to music and talk to my teammates. I don't watch TV; you know what I do? People always ask, what are you going to do after football? And sometimes you've got to sit down and think about it. You've got to think about it because you can get hurt tomorrow, I can get hurt today on or off the field, and so I've kind of just been thinking about financial education and financial literacy and stuff like that.

I'll just pull up a couple of videos, a couple of good people to listen to and I just watch them all night until I go to sleep. I just learn about the stuff until I can go to sleep.

(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)

John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.

University of Georgia Athletics

Players Mentioned

Brian Herrien

Tyler Simmons

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