Prep football: Gulf Coast grad, Gators walk-on Brian Biada writes book to encourage others

National Signing Day has come and gone, and most high school football players didn’t get a chance to sign with a college football program. Their next opportunity will come during April’s signing period, but most seniors won’t autograph a national letter of intent then either.

A large majority of athletes who play high school football don’t get offered a college scholarship.

Brian Biada wants you to know that’s OK.

Despite being an all-conference defensive back at Gulf Coast High School, Biada didn’t have any offers to continue his football career when he graduated in 2009. Instead of accepting a scholarship, Biada made his own path into elite college football, walking on at the University of Florida and practicing alongside future NFL players like Tim Tebow.

Biada said with enough determination, anyone can follow his footsteps – and he wants to show others how. That’s the purpose of his recently released book “Gator Walk: How to Walk-On and Not Crawl Off”.

“Kids can be overlooked (by college coaches) or underrated for any number of reasons,” Biada said. “Those kids can still play in college, though it may not seem like it. Don’t let a scholarship define who you are or what your path will be.”

Related story: Orange and Blue dream come true for Biada

Biada, 26, spent three years as a walk-on at Florida, which was the defending national champ when he arrived and remained a top-10 program throughout. He wanted to put his experiences into a book that would show the less glamorous side of college football – grinding away at practice every day without a scholarship and without ever getting into a game – while also entertaining fans.

But Biada’s biggest purpose in writing “Gator Walk” was to inspire. In his book, Biada describes himself as having “a 5-(foot)-9 frame and only satisfactory speed”, but he earned a spot on coach Urban Meyer’s Florida teams, surprising even himself.

“Walking on is not a concept that’s really coached or preached (by high school coaches),” Biada said. “It’s a little-known thing, but I thought ‘Aw, heck, I’ll give it a shot and see what happens if I try out.’

“Really the book is a lot about what happens when you walk on and how to manage that. Short and simple, don’t lose hope even though you didn’t find (a college scholarship offer).”

After graduating from Florida in 2012 (in three years), Biada started outlining his book. He wrote it and published it through CreateSpace, the self-publishing arm of Amazon. The 126-page “Gator Walk” came out this fall and is available at Amazon.com for $8.99 for paperback.

Biada intersperses light anecdotes of his time in Gainesville with lessons for potential walk-ons. Biada seeks to pass on the wisdom he learned through his own admittedly embarrassing moments.

Related story: Gulf Coast's Biada helps Gators prepare for rivalry game with Seminoles

In the second chapter titled “Network: Make Connections and Seek New Friends”, Biada relates how his first interaction with a Florida player came when he shared a class with Brandon Spikes. A rabid Gators fan since he was young, Biada took off his shirt in the middle of a crowded classroom and asked Spikes, now a linebacker with the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, to sign it.

Biada begins the chapter “Realize: Know Practice Doesn’t Always Make Perfect” with the sentence, “Your time on the team won’t always be rosy.” He then tells about the time he went a little too hard on a kicking drill and was laid out by future NFL offensive linemen twins Maurkice and Mike Pouncey, who then had some not nice words for the much smaller Biada.

“Gator Walk” also includes stories of Biada’s limited interaction with Tebow, including when the quarterback called Biada a “lawn gnome.” Biada also writes candidly about his relationship with Aaron Hernandez, who played with the New England Patriots before being convicted of murder.

Though Biada thinks many high school football players can walk on at a college program, it takes a person willing to humble himself and not afraid to put himself out there. Gregg Biada, who coached Brian as a youth player, said his youngest son has always had those qualities.

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“Confident is probably a good description,” Biada said of his son. “He’s an extrovert, too, from the standpoint that he’s very outward and always been very social.”

He proved those qualities when he walked into the Florida football office, by himself, as a freshman before the 2009 season and inquired about tryouts. He was one of three players to make the team out of the 12 who tried out.

That was just the start. Biada went to practice every day, even though he spent a large part of his college career battling hamstring injuries. He never played in an official game, but he played significant minutes in two Blue and Orange preseason scrimmages.

In Gainesville, that’s as good as a game – more than 50,000 fans fill the Gators’ Ben Hill Griffin Stadium to watch the Blue and Orange scrimmage.

“Brian has something different about him that not many people have,” said Biada’s former Gulf Coast teammate, Matt Milk. “If I could name one person in my life who would write an inspirational book for future athletes, it would definitely be Brian.”

Related story: Gulf Coast grad Biada named to SEC honor roll

Milk graduated in 2009 and walked on at South Florida. As the friends went through similar situations each day at practice, they swapped stories over the phone.

Like Biada, Milk encourages anyone to try walking on. Even if you don’t get a scholarship offer, Milk said, your career isn’t over.

“Don’t let anybody tell you you can’t do it,” Milk said. “If you’ve got your mind set on playing college football, just put your head down and make it happen. Using Brian’s book as motivation, anybody can do it.”

Biada said his time as a Florida Gator, perhaps the toughest three years of his life, is paying off. Not only did he learn time management skills and work ethic, but putting “college football player” on a resume opens doors in the professional world, even if for someone who wasn't a scholarship athlete.

Biada now lives near Washington, D.C., with his wife Brianna, a Barron Collier graduate. He works for The MITRE Corporation, a not-for-profit organization that does systems management work for several government agencies.

“My college career definitely is not one they’ll make a movie about,” Biada said. “But look at other walk-ons – (Texans defensive end) J.J. Watt, (Packers receiver) Jordy Nelson. You never know who’s going to fly under the radar. Just because you don’t get a scholarship doesn’t mean your career is over.”