Written by RPT.
Flipping an offensive lineman into a defensive end just doesn’t happen very often. Flipping an offensive lineman into one of the Big 12’s top pass rushers never happens. Yet, it happened with Brad Madison.
At South Harrison High School, Madison was named as the nation’s 54th best offensive guard by Rivals and earned the No. 45 spot from ESPN despite missing part of his senior year to injury. He was expected to follow in the footsteps of his brother, Ryan, who started more than 30 games at guard for Mizzou. But a funny thing happened when Brad got to campus.
"We’re watching him run and test and everything and we’re going ‘My gosh, maybe we should give this guy a chance at defensive end.’ Well, the rest is history," Gary Pinkel said. "I’m going to suggest to you that very few times you recruit offensive linemen and move them to defensive end and they’re players. If you do that, probably there’s a different guy standing here. But that was one of those things that really worked out well for us. It was pretty cool how that happened."
The transition qualified Madison to speak on the physical differences of switching sides of the ball.
"I think it’s physically tougher to play defensive lineman than offensive lineman. I kind of argue that with some offensive linemen," Madison said. "You’ve got to do a little bit more running. When you’re playing offense, you kind of just block and if the ball goes downfield, you take a little break. On defense, you’ve got to keep going 100 miles an hour the whole way."
Of course, he acknowledged his brother might take issue that statement.
"I’m sure he’d argue the other way around. We get into it every once and awhile, but nothing too serious."