Air Canada Alcorn QB Bridge adjusts to life away from Toronto

It’s not difficult to see why Brandon Bridge felt out of place during his first 30 days at Alcorn State.

A freshman quarterback from Canada, Bridge brought a French-Canadian accent to the woods of South Mississippi.

He went from living with his family to living with strangers – some 1,300 miles from home.

And he traded football with 12 players per side to playing with 11.

“The first month,” Bridge said, “was kind of rough.”

But those four weeks in July are so two months ago.

Bridge is now the starting quarterback for an Alcorn State team that enters Saturday’s game with Mississippi State brimming with confidence.

The Braves are 3-0 for the first time since 1993. They’ve outscored those opponents 118-57, and they have Bridge, a 6-foot-5, 205-pounder who has sparked the offense with his big body, quick feet and strong arm.

That said, they face a monumental task on Saturday.

According to the school’s media guide and the Southwestern Athletic Conference office, Alcorn has never played a team from the Southeastern Conference.

The program’s biggest win over a current Football Bowl Subdivision team might be a 1978 victory over Central Michigan.

Still, these Braves aren’t backing down.

“A lot of FCS teams have beaten FBS teams this year,” second-year Alcorn coach Earnest Collins said. “After the (last) game, our kids said, ‘Why not us?'”

Said Bridge: “Instead of thinking, ‘Oh let’s keep it close,’ we are going in expecting to win.”

If Alcorn is to pull off the upset, the Braves will need a big day from their surprising star: Bridge.

During fall camp, he lost the battle for the starting quarterback job to Terrance Barnes, a senior from Jackson who transferred from Hinds Community College.

But coaches couldn’t leave Bridge’s size, strength and speed on the bench. He replaced Barnes for good midway through the victory over Mississippi Valley State in Game 2.

As the Braves’ guy under center since, he’s rushed for 150 yards, thrown for nearly 400, scored four touchdowns and is a frustrating figure for opposing coaches.

“Naturally you say he’s young and you could put pressure on him, but this guy, you bring a lot of pressure and he’s going to find a way to keep plays alive,” said Alabama State coach Reggie Barlow, whose team lost at Alcorn 41-21 last week.

So why didn’t Bridge win the starting QB job in the fall?

Well, he had a lot going on.

First, he had to adjust to what he called a different environment.

Bridge is from the Toronto suburb of Mississauga.

Toronto sits just a few miles north of the U.S. border, but Bridge didn’t spend much time away from home, which, by the way, is a 22-hour trip away from Lorman. Bridge and his parents made the trip three times in a five-month span in the spring and summer.

The family never got a hotel either.

“My dad drove until he was tired,” Bridge said. “We just slept in the car.”

Upon arriving on campus for good on July 4, Bridge immediately realized he wasn’t one of these Mississippi boys.

“At first, they were making fun of my Canadian accent,” Bridge said. “After that, they kind of called me ‘Canada.'”

And now?

During fall camp, Bridge said the team got to know him and he got to know Mississippi.

He’s over his homesick feeling and now spends time in the film room trying to grasp American football.

Canadian football isn’t the same as that played in the states. Canadians play with 12 players on the field at a time.

Bridge said that normally means an extra cornerback on defense and an extra receiver on offense.

Canada’s field is 150 yards long – 110 from goal line to goal line with 20-yard end zones. Also, multiple offensive players are allowed to move in motion before the snap.

So now one can understand why Bridge wasn’t succeeding so much during fall practice – he had to learn the game.

And still, Bridge’s play sometimes makes his coach nervous.

“Sometimes he can give you heart attacks,” Collins said. “He carries that ball kind of wild, but we’re working on that.”

When it comes to Bridge’s talent, though, Collins admits the coaching staff “didn’t know we were getting what we got.”

Bridge accounted for about 3,000 yards and 37 touchdowns during his junior and senior years in high school.

He said a number of schools recruited him – Buffalo, Akron, Syracuse, Toledo – but the only ones that offered him scholarships were in Canada.

And he wanted badly to play in the United States.

The hookup happened when Collins worked a Minnesota Vikings camp and got film on Bridge from Vikings coaches.

“He drove 30 something hours from Canada,” Collins said, “and the rest is history.”

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