Whitefish Bay’s big man on campus
Prior to the 2020 prep football season, the Journal Sentinel will reveal the Supreme 17, a look at the top players in the area. Each day before the first day of practice Sept. 6, one player will be revealed with a feature story. This is our seventh installment.
WHITEFISH BAY – Joe Brunner has long been used to being noticed everywhere he goes. It comes with the territory when you're 6-foot-6 and 300 pounds.
What he's still growing accustomed to is being recognized everywhere he goes. But when you're the type of football player that Brunner is, it does come with the territory.
Brunner, a junior offensive tackle at Whitefish Bay, is one of the most sought-after prospects from the state in a long time. Rated as the third-best offensive lineman in the country by 247 Sports' composite rankings, Brunner has a scholarship offer list that features many of the top programs in college football.
Iowa. LSU. Michigan. Notre Dame. Ohio State. Penn State. Wisconsin.
Put it all together and you can start to see why people take notice when Brunner is standing down the aisle at Sendik's or working out at Lubar Stadium.
“You're held to a high standard,” Brunner said. “It's still a little crazy that people just recognize me places. It adds some pressure, but I can handle it. I don't really brag about myself, so it's kind of easy for me to put my head down and work hard.”
The unassuming Brunner turns into a different character on the field. He has been that way ever since the fifth grade, when he first started playing tackle football with pads; the fact that he could hit people alone was enough for football to surpass baseball as his favorite sport.
“I flip the switch,” Brunner said. “Once I step on the football field, I'm kind of a different person.”
That tenacity was the very first thing that Blue Dukes head coach Jake Wolter noticed about Brunner, imposing size aside.
During the summer before Brunner's freshman year, he was invited to participate in the varsity team's three-day camp in full pads at Carroll University, an opportunity rarely, if ever, extended to freshmen in the program. Moments into the first practice, after players had broken off to work with their position groups, a commotion at the offensive linemen end of the field drew everyone's attention.
“I look down there,” Wolter said, “and a senior was getting on Joe during a drill. Joe started getting on top of him and beating up on this senior to-be, a guy who ended up being an all-conference defensive end. Joe was just taking it to him.”
Brunner's physicality and proclivity for finishing blocks is what college coaches have told him stands out most on his film.
“I'm an aggressive guy when I go out there, so just putting my hands on someone and kind of beating them up a little bit is definitely enjoyable for me,” Brunner said.
Said Wolter: “He's got that nasty streak you want in your best offensive lineman. He's such a nice guy off the field, but between those lines, he's got a prick mentality where he's finishing everything. He's tenacious.”
Size and strength alone don't make a prospect as highly touted as Brunner is.
Years of playing basketball have helped Brunner develop a lateral quickness that's impressive for a 300-pound lineman.
He has added about 35 pounds of muscle since he was a freshman and also spends countless hours year round honing his technique, working on his stance, steps and hand placement.
What Wolter sees the most improvement in is Brunner's flexibility and hip mobility, both of which are critical for linemen at the next level.
“He's come a long way on his hip mobility from being a kid at an early age who could get stiff hips,” Wolter said.The whole package still leaves Brunner's teammates impressed.
“I was kind of speechless when I first saw him,” said Blue Dukes senior quarterback Jayden Jackson, who also is teammates with Brunner on the basketball court. “I was like, ‘What has your father been feeding you? But it's not just that he's a big guy; he's got an athletic build. It's remarkable how athletic he is, how well he moves for his size.”
Brunner is in a unique position as a recruit, and that's exactly where his laid-back off-the-field persona comes into play.
“He just wants to be a kid and he doesn't seem to stress about the process,” Wolter said. “He just wants to be a kid who hangs out with the boys. It just so happens that he's got LSU and Wisconsin and Ohio State calling him.
“When I talk with him about it, he'll give me all the answers. I'll ask if he wants to decide, wants to cut down the list, but he says he just wants to wait and see.”
Of all the schools that have offered, Brunner says Wisconsin, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Penn State, Nebraska and LSU are recruiting him the heaviest right now. He will get about 10 recruiting calls each week, with the above programs all calling “at least once a week.”
Brunner is the highest-rated member of the 2022 recruiting class in Wisconsin, considered to be one of the most talented groups in state history. The class featured six members in ESPN's top 300 and two have already made commitments – Fond du Lac's Braelon Allen to UW and Milwaukee King's Jerry Cross to Penn State – but Brunner is in no rush to make a decision.
“Being in this position, having just turned 16, it's impressive because he's letting everything come to him and not getting too worked up about it. Not every kid gets this opportunity to have the top colleges in the nation calling him weekly.”