Just the right size
Idaho’s Brandon Kania might have been the lightest defensive end in NCAA Division I-A football when he started his first game as a true freshman against the University of Washington in 2001.
He weighed perhaps 220 pounds. He would finish that season at 215 pounds, smaller than Idaho’s starting linebackers. He made a career-high nine tackles that day against the Huskies, whom he still considers the best team he’s lined up against over the last four years.
Despite his best efforts at all-you-can-eat buffets, Kania usually played his first three seasons in the low 220s. Finally, this summer he bulked up to 240 pounds.
There’s only way to survive at that size against the arduous schedule Idaho faces year in, year out.
“He’s Mr. Technician,” opposite end Mike Anderson said. “It’s unreal how good he is with his feet and hands. He’s not the biggest guy, but he knows technique.”
He’s also Mr. Steady (total tackles of 46, 41 and 46 the last three years) and Mr. Dependable (he’s never missed a game). With a big senior season, he has a shot at cracking Idaho’s top-five lists in career sacks and tackles-for-loss.
“I’m a pretty tough critic of myself,” Kania said. “Technique will get you a lot further than strength and other things like that. I’m in no way perfect with technique, but I try to do things right and it makes playing the position a lot easier. I think I’m actually faster than I was because I put on good weight.”
Football is an important facet of Kania’s life, but not the only one. The sport consumes the majority of his time in the fall, but he’s perhaps the only player on the team who has landed a 9-foot sturgeon, welded a decorative railing and trained a hunting dog, all while carrying a 3.2 grade-point average in agricultural systems management.
“I’ve been welding and fabricating things since high school,” Kania said. “I make custom trailers, a lot of equipment and machinery for farms.”
When time allows, he takes his black lab Jasper duck hunting. In July, he caught a sizable sturgeon on the Columbia River. He found charts on the Internet that estimated the sturgeon’s weight at around 475 pounds.
“I took some pictures and let him go because it’s illegal to keep them,” Kania said. “That was a big, big fish.”
That one didn’t get away, but Kania has had to deal with a number of football games that have. Counting last week’s 14-7 loss to Utah State, Idaho has dropped 15 games by 10 points or less during his four seasons.
That’s particularly bitter for Kania, who lost seven games combined from seventh grade through high school. At Pasco High, he started on two Washington State 4A championship teams. The Vandals promptly lost their first eight games in Kania’s freshman year.
“It’s been real tough,” Kania said. “I’ve taken my fair share of losses the last three years. I think it’s time to start winning again.”
Kania played tight end and defensive end at Pasco, but recruiting interest was modest, partly because he was undersized.
Several Big Sky Conference schools pursued him and Montana offered a scholarship. His recruiting trip to Idaho sealed his decision.
“Brian Howard was my host and I just felt really comfortable, and we both had a lot of the same views on things,” Kania said. “He grew up in Yakima and I knew we’d hit it off and we could make things happen on the field.”
Howard has graduated to the St. Louis Rams. Kania, voted a team captain this year, is hoping for a Vandals turnaround before he departs Moscow.
“The new (coaching) staff has brought the team morale up tenfold,” Kania said.
“Nobody’s hanging their heads. These coaches have been in winning programs and we need to follow their lead. We know if we stay the course we’ll be a good team.”