Bostick having breakout season

Newberry coaches always have seen the potential in Brandon Bostick.

And after two years of struggles, the receiver is finally living up to it on the field.

The former West Florence standout is off to a strong start and is coming off his best game Saturday when he hauled in a team-high nine passes for 158 yards in the 35-27 win over Wingate. The 158 receiving yards were the second-most in the South Athletic Conference this year.

For the season, Bostick has caught 30 passes for 435 yards and two touchdowns while leading the team in yards per catch at (14.5).

“Biggest thing for Brandon, he has turned into playmaker when he has got the ball,” Newberry receivers coach Ike Allred said. “He has always had the potential and is still learning but the sky is the limit.”

And Bostick is doing this not at 100 percent. He has played the whole season with a broken collarbone he suffered in fall camp. Bostick said it hurts sometimes when he gets tackled or lands the wrong way but he hasn’t missed much practice time at all.

“He definitely isn’t soft,” Allred said. “He is a hard-nosed kid who is really excelling right now. We are proud of him.”

At 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds, he is a definite matchup problem for any defense and uses his former basketball playing skills to snag passes out of the air. But the coaching staff didn’t know if Bostick would be better suited to play linebacker, something he also did at West Florence.

That question was answered when Bostick handled All-America safety Derrell Mills during a blocking drill in one of his first practices in 2007.

“We were all like, ‘Good gosh’ this kid could play,” Allred said.

But the learning curve was steep.

Bostick struggled in picking up on the team’s spread offense, although it was similar to the one he ran in high school. Allred said the coaches throw the entire playbook at freshmen in three days, a tough task for any rookie to handle.

So Bostick red-shirted his freshman year, but started six games last year, finishing with 20 catches for 199 yards and two TDs.

“It was pretty hard and I was pretty lost,” Bostick said. “I didn’t know what I was doing.

“I really think I got it right now.”

Bostick credits Allred and rest of his coaches for continuing to push him and make him a better player.

He also isn’t satisfied with recent success and knows he has much to learn as a player if he wants to follow in the footsteps of some of the top receivers, such as teammate Kelton Tindal and former Marlboro County standout Tymere Zimmerman, the school’s all-time leading pass-catcher.

“I still got a lot of football left and I’m going to play as hard as I can and work to become the best player I can,” Bostick said.

Notes
A look at how some of the other Pee Dee players are doing in college football:

• Cheraw’s Cliff Matthews (USC) leads all South Carolina linemen with 28 tackles and has a team-high seven tackles for loss.

• Wilson’s Antwain Lyde (Virginia State) leads the lead team and is seventh in the CIAA with 479 yards rushing. He also has three touchdowns.

• Wilson’s LaQuentin Milo (Virginia State) is second on the team with 42 tackles.

• Wilson’s Lance Clark (Newberry) has 29 tackles and leads team in quarteback hurries.

• West Florence’s Avery Murray (Maryland) has appeared in six games and made one tackle in his freshman year.

• West Florence’s Jimmy Howell (Virginia) ranks sixth in the ACC in punting at 40.4 yards per game.

• West Florence’s Malliciah Goodman (Clemson) is fourth in tackles for loss with four. He has 12 tackles and two sacks overall.

• Johnsonville’s Justin Lewis (Maryland) made his first career start at right guard last week against Virginia and has played in four games this season.

• Marlboro County’s Jason Ayers (S.C. State) was named the MEAC Defensive Player of the Week this week for his performance against Florida A&M. Ayers had six tackles, including four for loss and a sack in the win over the Rattlers. He leads the team with eight tackles for loss.

• Carvers Bay’s Donvan Richards (S.C. State) is tied for the team lead with two interceptions.

• Lamar’s Markee Hamlin (S.C. State) is third on the team with 23 1/2 tackles.

• South Florence’s Adam Wade (Middle Tennessee) has appeared in all six games for the Blue Raiders as the team’s long snapper.