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Fall football looking dicey, but the countdown’s feeling spicy. 64 days down...36 to go. Today we’ll look at a so-far-numberless newbie—Isaiah Bradford
#36, Isaiah Bradford, True Freshman, CB
Stats
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 170 lbs.
High School: Redlands East Valley High School, Redlands, CA
How’d he get to The Blue™?
Family ties, man (and not the Michael J. Fox one). Mr. Bradford is the younger cousin of one Alexander Mattison—former Bronco tackler-hurdler now with the Minnesota Vikings. Of course, Bradford wasn’t on the Bronco radar because of his bloodlines alone...he was a 3-star prospect (247Sports and ESPN), and one of the top 100 recruits in California and a top 100 safety recruit nationally after racking up 102 tackles as a junior. Unfortunately, Isaiah had an early season ACL tear as a senior and had to shut things down. Luckily, the Broncos stuck with him and he stuck with the Broncos over offers from Colorado, Colorado State, and San José State.
Nickname
“Zay”
Through some light Twitter sleuthing, I believe this might be an actual nickname, so I’m not going to muck it up.
Look-alike
Actor Allen Payne
Career highlights
Three-star prospect according to ESPN and 247Sports. Top 100 recruit in California.
2020 Prospectus
Some previews are easier to write than others...and this is one of the easier ones. IF the Broncos play this season, Bradford will not be playing alongside them as he’ll be grayshirting while he rehabs the aforementioned knee injury. Grayshirts usually report second semester, so the soonest we’d see him would be 2021 Spring Ball. Hopefully, the world will be more normal then and his ACL will be fully healed. Once Bradford is among the playing public though, look out...he’s got fantastic closing speed, hits like a truck, and is as productive a safety as we’ve seen come through our recruiting gates in a while. The Broncos future at the safety position, in fact, looks very bright as guys like JL Skinner, Semaj Verner, Rodney Robinson and (perhaps) both Clark boys (Jaylen and Donovan) are all sophomores or younger. With solid defensive recruiting of late, the Orange Crush defense should be back in effect for the foreseeable future.
Is he on Twitter?
Yes, and he dabbles in motivational speaking
having positive thoughts and productive actions will lead to positive outcomes
— Isaiah Bradford (@kinngzay) February 7, 2020
Completely made up fact
By virtue of playing different positions, Bradford is unlikely to be able to match his cousin Alex’s contributions in the rushing department at Boise State, but he does plan to beat his cousin’s top score on Bust-A-Move on the Neo Geo machine at the student union.