Brunner keeps laying it on the line

Greendale - Sure, Eric Brunner thinks about the 2006 state championship football game a lot.

He gets at least a once-a-year reminder when he goes deer hunting with former teammate Wes Merk, and Merk's father pops in a tape of the Division 3 final that year at Camp Randall Stadium, when Greendale met Waupaca.

"For some reason, he likes to watch it with us every deer hunting season, even though the ending is always sad," said Brunner, who was named the state's Defensive Player of the Year that year by the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association and Player of the Year by the Associated Press. "It was a heck of a season. Just to get there was a great thing."

Brunner's team lost that defensive battle, 7-3, when Waupaca scored the lone touchdown of the game with just 3:50 to play. It remains the program's lone visit to the championship game.

"He was far and away the best defensive lineman I've seen before or since at any level in the state of Wisconsin," said coach Rob Stoltz, who has seen his share of talented players funnel through during his time at Greendale. "That's D1, D2 or D3. I had numerous coaches come up to me and say the exact same thing.

"I've never seen a defensive lineman impact the game with regularity the way he continues to do. I believed it and understood it, but as the years go by, you begin to appreciate even more what a force he really was."

Next level

Brunner hasn't stopped being disruptive. He was All-State on both sides of the ball in high school, but these days he plays exclusively on defense for Illinois State University.

The senior, now listed at 6 feet-2 inches and 285 pounds, earned first-team all-conference honors in the Missouri Valley last year, starting all 11 games at defensive tackle and registering 53 tackles, four sacks and 9.5 tackles for losses.

The Redbirds have racked up five straight victories heading into the Nov. 19 season finale with Northern Iowa, posting a 7-3 mark overall and 5-2 mark in the Missouri Valley, good for third place.

Brunner has started every game, posting 50 tackles, 4.5 sacks and three fumble recoveries, with another forced. Allowing just 73.2 rushing yards per game, Illinois State has the best run defense in the league by far.

Were he perhaps an inch or two taller, Brunner would almost surely be thinking about where he'll fall in the NFL Draft. That isn't ruled out entirely, but he seems at peace with whatever comes next.

"After this season, I'll be graduating with a great internship at an accounting firm in Milwaukee, and I'll also be training for the combine and things like that," Brunner said. "We have a few prospects on our team that could really get a cup of coffee in the NFL or even stick around longer; we have scouts coming to practices.

"If I don't have a great year and stay healthy, that's not even an option, so that's my focus right now."

Brunner never wavered from his commitment to Illinois State even after a coaching change following his freshman year - a redshirt campaign for Brunner after he had Tommy John surgery on his elbow.

The school hired Brock Spack, who spent 12 seasons as Purdue's offensive coordinator, to fill the shoes of Denver Johnson, who resigned after the Redbirds went 3-8 in 2008.

"I love my school and love playing football here, so (transferring) didn't cross my mind once," Brunner said. "There was some resentment and frustration because of all the changes at first, but anybody that stuck with the program said the change was for the better.

"The coaches (now) come from the Big Ten. I expected hard work, I expected long hours, I expected a yearlong season and we wouldn't have it any other way. I love football and I'm going to miss it whenever it's gone."

Under Spack, the team has posted consecutive winning seasons and has already equaled last year's victory total with one game to play.

"A lot of people didn't expect us to have two winning seasons in Brock's first two seasons," Brunner said. "Three in a row hasn't happened in a really long time. That means a lot to this program."

The voice

Brunner was a big part of the improvement. Last season, one article in the campus student newspaper, The Daily Vidette, quoted Spack lauding Brunner's leadership.

"This has slowly become Eric Brunner's team," Spack said. "He's strapped them on his back. I've only been around a couple guys that can do that, especially at my defensive tackle position."

Brunner said, "When I was going to be a sophomore, some freshmen thought I was a senior already, and I hadn't even played my freshman year."

He speculated with a laugh that the mix-up had to do with how he looked and added, "I've also got a pretty big mouth. I guess when you hear someone talk a lot, you associate that with leadership."

Stoltz wasn't surprised.

"He's a great guy and pretty humble, but he has a nasty demeanor on the football field," Stoltz said. "He gets after it and works his tail off."

Panther pride

Brunner said the climate at Greendale helped launch him into a career at the college level.

"A lot of kids come here talk about their high schools, and some have bad things to say about their coaches and how they didn't know football," he said. "Rob Stoltz and (offensive line coach) Scott Bond, who did the strength program at Greendale, helped me out with recruiting and training.

"They put in so many hours. It's hard to believe they're coaching high school football and the effort they put in is comparable to college coaches. A lot of kids in high school have apprehension playing football, but in Greendale, when they get to know Rob Stoltz, they want to be part of the team. He instills a lot of pride."

Stoltz said several program alumni get together every offseason for a stickball tournament, and Brunner has been among those taking part.

"If he wants to be in an NFL camp, he'll be in a camp, whether as a free agent signing or a late-round pick," Stoltz said of Brunner. "Given how talented he is on the football field, that's something he'll have to consider.

"It comes down to ego and how much you want to continue to invest when nothing is guaranteed. You start to have a different outlook on life through college. The dream might still be to play above and beyond the college level, but the perception of what that means can change a little bit."