Lakeside High School alum Maurice "Mo" Bradford has featured in a backup role for the past two seasons at Cornell, but is set to take on a central role for the Big Red defense in his upcoming junior season.
Common practice in the Ivy League, unlike other college football conferences, is players will not redshirt during their freshman season before they earn more chances for playing time in their second year. Bradford competed on the junior varsity team in 2016 after a standout career at Lakeside. He is the son of Maurice Sr. and Aylisha Bradord.
"I think I probably would have started, but there was a pretty good senior captain that was in the first spot," Bradford said. "He's a really great guy.
Kurt Frimel manned the middle linebacker "Mike" position for the Big Red the past two seasons. He tallied 59 total tackles as a junior in 2016 and 55 as a senior in 2017, despite missing almost two full games.
Bradford stepped in for Frimel to make six tackles in a 26-18 home loss to Bucknell (5-6) at Schoellkopf Field on Oct. 14 in Ithaca, N.Y. He tallied another four tackles a week later as Cornell (3-7, 3-4) defeated Brown (2-8, 0-7) 34-7 for homecoming to earn weekly honor roll honors. He finished the year with 22 total tackles.
"I spent a lot of time in the summer really honing my skills as a linebacker and taking care of the technical things," Bradford said. "You can have a lot of raw talent, but, at the next level, you really need to hone your craft because everybody is expected to play at a higher level and everybody is good. I got a lot stronger, got my body right and got better as an all-around linebacker."
Bradford is listed as 6-2, 225 pounds. He said he hopes to gain muscle and maintain his speed to get up to about 230-235 pounds by next season.
"He is just a great kid, he works hard, he is very polite and always tries to find extra work to do," said Bradford's high school coach at Lakeside, Jared McBride. "He had a great relationship with his teammates. He would show them how to do it, tell them if they were not doing it right and they would listen.
"He is just a true leader. That is going to take him much further in his career when he gets done playing football. He is an awesome overall leader."
Lakeside went 3-7 and 4-6 during Bradford's sophomore and junior seasons, but they finished 9-3 in his senior year, earning the school's first share of a conference championship in 40 years. Bradford and fellow running back Colt Housley combined for more than 2,700 yards and 48 touchdowns to lead the Rams to the 5A-South title.
"I really loved our class and the team we had my senior year," Bradford said. "All of the years were great, but I loved helping build the program. Hopefully, my class and I left a legacy and standard for the next classes to obtain. There is a lot of joy in knowing we left a positive mark."
Running backs Dupree Swanson and Michael James earned all-state honors this season, succeeding Bradford and Housley in the Lakeside backfield. The Rams are 18-3 in conference play the past three seasons, claiming a share of the league title again in 2016 before earning the No. 2 seed in the playoffs in 2017.
"They were instrumental in being the foundation," McBride said. "They were a group that came through, kind of refused to lose and put the work in during the offseason to be good. They were a good, tight-knit group. Our kids still today talk about that crew and want to try to be like them. They were definitely a big part in what we have going on today."
"He was one of two kids that played up as an eighth-grader with the ninth-place team," McBride added. "We have not had many do that here and he was one of two that did that year. As an eighth-grader, you could tell he was well-developed and was going to be a good football player."
Bradford ran for 1,231 yards and 26 touchdowns as a senior, while catching 41 passes for 669 yards and two scores. He also led the Rams with 95 tackles, as well as two interceptions and two forced fumbles. He said he enjoyed playing offense, but also had an affinity for defense since he grew up playing football in California.
"He is a good athlete and can do whatever you ask him to do," McBride said. "A lot of people out there enjoying tackling and I think he does. When you get someone like that, they are going to play them on the defensive side first."
Cornell employs a variety of defensive sets, but mainly deploys three down linemen, three linebackers and an extra rusher. The Mike shares responsibility with the free safety to direct the defense.
Bradford said the middle linebacker role is reactionary, with opportunities to read plays and adjust. He said everyone on defense is expected to be aggressive.
"You see a hole and you have an opportunity to jack up a lineman and make a tackle," Bradford said. "That is always fun to do."
David Archer has been the head coach at Cornell since 2013 and the defensive coordinator is Jared Backus. Bradford was recruited by assistant coach Satyen Bhakta, who visited Lakeside and conducted an in-home visit, and linebackers coach Guido Falbo.
"He is tough. I'm not going to lie, he is a tough guy, but I would not be the linebacker I am without him," Bradford said. "He definitely pushes me to impress and pushes me to earn the spot. To me, he is one of the more honest coaches I have. When I hear something from him, I take it to heart."
Bradford has carried over his academic success in high school to the Ivy League. He is majoring in City and Regional Planning in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning with a 3.2 grade point average after graduating high school with a GPA above a 4.0 and a 28 on his ACT.
His Christmas break included a weeklong course in Baton Rouge, La., in which students worked with elementary school students in an enrichment program. Bradford completed an internship last summer with the Hot Springs office of U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-District 4. He said he plans to seek a more extensive internship this summer.
Cornell will return its starting quarterback, leading receiver, three of the top four running backs and leading tackler in 2018. The 2017 scheduled includes losses of 21-7 to Colgate (7-4), 26-18 to Bucknell, 10-0 at Dartmouth (8-2, 5-2), 18-8 to Columbia (8-2, 5-2) and 29-22 at Penn (6-4, 4-3).
"To me, I think it is obvious we are able to compete with everybody else, be just as good as everybody else and compete with the other top teams in the Ivy League," Bradford said. "This is with every team, but we need to stop making the critical mistakes, reduce turnovers, create turnovers and score."
Bradford said he is not nervous about taking on a more significant role for the Big Red in 2018.
"Playing at the next level, I don't think you really get nervous about playing," Bradford said. "I think you are eager to show what you've got, more than anything. In high school, you might be nervous about playing and nervous about messing up, but you know you are competent. You know you are a good player. I'm just ready to show my stuff."
Sports on 01/18/2018