Franklin defensive end ‘unstoppable’
Prior to the 2019 prep football season, the Journal Sentinel will reveal the Supreme 17, a look at the top players in the area to watch. Each day between the first day of practice on Aug. 6 to the first day of games on Aug. 22, one player will be revealed.
Gavin Meyer knows that a lot will fall on his shoulders. At 6 feet 4 inches and 245 pounds, he has the frame – and tools – to handle it.
A year ago, Meyer was a part of Franklin’s fearsome front, the most disruptive defensive line in the state.
Opponents had to game-plan for two all-state first-teamers with Meyer off the edge and Tanner Schwartz on the interior. The third vaunted pass rusher, Johnny Plewa, was named first team all-conference and now suits up for the Iowa football team.
Anchoring a defense that allowed just nine points and 76.2 yards rushing per game, that trio combined for 166 tackles, including 66 for loss, and 25 sacks as the Sabers went 11-1, won the Southeast Conference and reached Level 3 of the WIAA Division 1 playoffs.
“It was pick your poison,” says Franklin head coach Louis Brown.
Gone are Schwartz and Plewa and a total of seven of the Sabers’ nine top tacklers, including all-state defensive back Alec Baudry.
“For me and our other seniors, it’s finally our time,” Meyer said. “That’s kind of our saying this year. It’s our time to step up and take the lead role and lead the team. We don’t have as many seniors as we did last year, but I think we have enough to step up and make a good run and get back to Camp Randall again.”
Just as his film does, Meyer’s junior season numbers jump off the screen.
Meyer’s 29 tackles for loss were fourthmost in the state and the second-highest total in Division 1.
He also led Franklin with 14 sacks, good for fifth in the state, and recorded at least one sack in 10 of 12 games. Six times, his quarterback pressures directly led to an interception.
“Teams have tried a bunch of different things on him,” Brown said. “A lot of those coaches have told me that they just flat out couldn’t handle him, that he was unstoppable at times and way better than they saw on film.”
Fifteen pounds heavier coming into camp this summer, Meyer could be poised for an even more dominant senior campaign.
“He loves it so much that it’s the only sport for him,” Brown said. “I think it’d be great if he had a couple other sports, to be honest, but he’s just spent so much time on it developing what he has to maximize his ability. He works his tail off and he’s really developed into a really good leader, the best we have.”
Because of his size and conditioning level, Meyer prides himself on having a motor that outlasts almost any offensive lineman in his way.
“I pride myself on being that hardworking, big-motor, always-working guy,” he said. “I’m always getting to the ball. I want to be the first one there and the last one out of the pile.”
With a series of impressive camp showings at Michigan State, Minnesota and Wisconsin, Meyer hoped he would receive a Big Ten scholarship offer heading into his senior season. That never came, although the Badgers recently extended a preferred walk-on offer.
Entering his junior year, Meyer wrote that he wanted to earn a scholarship to have his college paid for, a sentiment that has him heavily leaning toward one of the 10 programs that have extended that offer.
“I don’t really think I’ll go the route of walk-on yet,” said Meyer, who mentioned Eastern Kentucky, Illinois State and Wyoming as the schools currently pursuing him the hardest. “I still haven’t assessed it all. The programs that offer the preferred walk-on are obviously great and it’s a great opportunity because you’re still on the football team, but it’s still a big check to write.”
Said Brown: “Hopefully he plays with a little chip on his shoulder because he’s got no Big Ten scholarship offers. That’s, I think, good for me.”
Good for Brown and the Sabers. Dangerous for quarterbacks.