Football: Briggs is the big man on campus at Birmingham nowadays

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Was bored this afternoon, so I figured it might be a good idea to get out of the house and drive over to Birmingham High to see how Milton Knox‘s replacement, Trajuan Briggs, was coming along. Turns out, the 6-foot, 200-plus pound junior-to-be is doing just fine, at times, appearing fully capable of taking over the featured back role.

Mind you, the Birmingham backers will never forget the UCLA-bound Knox. I mean look at these stats from his freshman, sophomore, junior and senior seasons, the numbers are mind-boggling. Expecting Briggs to duplicate that type of production would be, flat out, unreasonable. However, there’s no reason why he can’t forge his own identity.

‘With Milton around, we brought Trajuan along slowly,’’ Patriots coach Ed Croson said. ‘There was no need to force him into things until he was ready. The good news for us is, Trajuan is ready. He’s explosive. He’s big. He improves with each of our summer practices. I don’t think he’ll have to carry us, but he can. He’s ready to run.’’

Briggs proved as much when given the opportunity a season ago, averaging more than eight yards per touch. He had a breakout game against Chatsworth, rushing for 100 yards on five carries and scoring a pair of touchdowns. The Valencia and Granada Hills Kennedy defenses had no answer for him either.

While attempting to recruit Knox, Division I scouts stumbled upon Briggs. According to Croson, most PAC-10 Conference schools have expressed interest in him, including the Bruins -- if you can believe that. Regardless, Briggs is the man now and it will be interesting to see if he can make an impact similar to the way his predecessor did.

-- Sean Ceglinsky