ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – The fierce and ferocious two-time national championship team at the University of Florida was historic. Some of the best players ever to come out of the Gators program played during those momentous years. It’s a team people still talk about to this day, even almost two decades later.
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But where are those players now?
You can find the 2008 SEC Special Teams Player of the Year and consensus first-team All-American, Brandon James, at St. Augustine High School as the Yellow Jackets offensive coordinator.
“Being able to be a part of so many kids lives that are from where I’m from and be able to help them reach their goals of doing the similar things that I was able to accomplish,” James said. “It’s a humbling feeling for me that I take it with a lot of pride.”
James is starting his fourth season as the Yellow Jackets OC. It’s also his fifth year on the coaching staff, which is even a surprise to James. He never thought growing up that he would become a football coach.
“It’s something I never thought about, but being in this position now and choosing this career path, now I think it’s a perfect set up,” James said. “It’s kind of what God planned for me.”
James returned to the same stomping grounds where it all began. As a senior captain in 2005, he helped lead St. Augustine to the school’s first and only state championship during a 15-0 season. That’s how he received a scholarship to UF where the success continued as part of one of the most dominant classes in program history.
“Florida had 100 years of football, I think, my first year there, and they only had one national title at the time,” James said. “To come to think that our class was a part of a class that put two together, that’s just kind of crazy. We only still have three. Our 2006 recruiting class was big time.”
That recruiting class included James, his high school rival from Nease, Tim Tebow, and five-stars like Brandon Spikes and Percy Harvin.
James still holds the Gators records for career kickoff return yardage (2,718 yards) and combined kick return yardage (4,770 yards).
“That’s why it’s great to have him,” St. Augustine senior wide receiver Trenton Jones said. “He’s where most of us are trying to go and he guides us. It’s the best.”
After his college days were complete, James then signed an undrafted free agent contract with the Colts. He spent one season with Indianapolis then spent one season in the Canadian Football League with the Edmonton Eskimos.
“What he’s been exposed to and the knowledge and the background, it’s a blessing to our kids,” said St. Augustine head coach Brian Braddock, who was an assistant coach during that 2005 championship season.
Once his playing career was over, James had a tough decision to make: what to do next. That’s when he began coaching.
“I actually thought my playing career would last forever,” James said. “My dad actually seen a lot of it in me with him coaching me in AAU. Coach [Urban] Meyer said it when we we’re at Florida that I had a lot of traits to be a coach.”
James has similar success leading the next generation of Yellow Jackets football players to achieve the same accolades he was able to garner as a standout special teams returner. St. Augustine, which hosts No. 5 Bolles in the Varsity 4 Game of the Week on Friday, is currently undefeated and has one of the most explosive offenses in Northeast Florida.