A Brayden Schager interview is a lot like one with Marcus Mariota. You’re not going to get anything controversial or flashy. But they’re both smart and very accommodating guys. They do their best to try to give us what we need to do our job.
Part of why the University of Hawaii’s quarterback is so good at dealing with members of the media is that he’s been doing it since before he was born. His mother, Ginger Allen, is a national award-winning senior investigative reporter at CBS affiliate, KTVT-TV in Ft. Worth, Texas.
“She helps with what to say and not to say,” Schager said. “She still helps a lot, but I think she thinks I do a good job on it now. She definitely helped me get to where I am now.”
Something else also contributed to his media savvy. It happened in 2013, when Schager was a fourth-grader living with his parents and sister in Highland Park, Texas, a suburb of Dallas.
And it was Madness.
He made news for nothing to do with football, way before he did here for throwing Schager bombs as UH’s starting quarterback (and a brief venture into the transfer portal and subsequent return).
“Ouch! Dallas 10-year-old had top-ranked NCAA tournament bracket out of 8.15 million until Louisville beat Michigan”
Between that Dallas Morning News headline and the story sits a photo of a dejected little boy, wearing a Mavs jersey and looking like Dirk Nowitzki just got traded.
This was worse. It made the poor kid cry.
Schager can laugh about it now, but this was more traumatic than when he learned the truth about Santa Claus.
“Yes,” he said yesterday, after a two-hour lifting session and before a class Tuesday. “Losing the bracket was worse.”
Maybe because the media was all over it. Schager was No. 1 in all the land, and all the land seemingly knew about it. No, it wasn’t mom’s doing. The father of one of his friends had leaked it that a kid was on the verge of winning.
A 10-year-old ahead of 8.15 million others, including President Barack Obama, Jay Bilas, Stephen A. Smith and all the other celebrities and supposed experts?
That’s a story.
Schager remembers doing at least a half dozen interviews, including a live studio appearance somewhere. Allen remembers fielding radio interview requests from as far away as Buffalo, N.Y.
“It was crazy. Even someone from Vanity Fair did a story,” she said. “I ended up being Brayden’s publicist.”
It should be noted that when Schager was a kid he had better March Madness odds than most because he filled out the maximum allowed 25 brackets (which he submitted under his dad Scott’s name — with his permission).
He was the kind of kid who did his research, largely by watching SportsCenter, over and over again — all night if he could get away with it. It got to the point that his parents removed the TV from his room. The funny thing is the bracket that nearly won was one of the last he did that year, and that he barely put any thought into it.
It started out as nothing that special, even when he got 12 of the Sweet 16 right. Then, he nailed seven of the Elite Eight, all of the Final Four and Louisville and Michigan advancing to the championship game — which put him at No. 1.
The kid was on a roll.
Then, boom. Crash. Like one bad roll at a hot craps table.
He tried to stay cool about it when Louisville won, but think of yourself at age 10. Devastating, right?
“It took a little bit of time to get over it. I think it was sad for everyone, all of our community. And seeing everyone else sad made me more sad,” Schager said. “But looking back on it now is really cool.”
He doesn’t hold a grudge against Michigan for losing.
“I was more upset at Louisville for winning,” he said Tuesday, with a laugh. “Still not a Louisville fan.”
He returned to being your typical fourth-grader, just with a more accurate March Madness bracket than 99% of the rest of the world. That was no consolation prize — there wasn’t even a first prize to win anyway.
But those bragging rights … what could be better? Not much else, other than actually winning the tournament itself as a player. Beating Fresno State in your first college football start might, but that didn’t happen for Schager until eight years later.
“There was a gap until the next time I got any interview requests,” he said. “The next one was probably when I was playing football in high school and during recruiting.”
It’s time for full disclosure.
I only know about this because Schager is in a sports journalism class I teach, and one of the assignments is to fill out March Madness brackets. When he showed me one of the stories from 11 years ago, it was just one of those, “Hey, isn’t this crazy?” kind of things, with no intention of getting me to write about it. When I asked if he minded he said he didn’t.
Not many of his teammates knew that Schager was famous before he was famous, either. Defensive back Brandon Shah didn’t, and he sits next to him in class.
“No way,” Shah said, laughing. “Doesn’t surprise me that he doesn’t brag about it. He’s cordial, but genuinely humble.”
When he’s not in classes, studying or in off-season conditioning, Schager helps plan and organize the Buddy Bowl. It’s a touch football game with special needs kids every May back home in Dallas that Schager’s family started when he was a high school freshman.
All of that leaves no time to fill out 25 March Madness brackets.
Heading into the Final Four, marketing major Brylle Basco leads our group — in the men’s AND women’s tournaments.
Schager did one as required for the class assignment. He filled out a women’s bracket.
Let’s just say he’s not in contention to win the contest this time. But Brayden Schager, 21, has a chance to out-do Brayden Schager, 10, in one regard: He’s still in it for the correct national champion, since he picked Iowa to take it all.
