Would-be neurosurgeon operates at new position
For a guy who hopes to be a neurosurgeon, maybe he should try a slightly more genteel Twitter handle than @BeastNamedFrank. Like, perhaps, @DrFrankBuncom IV.
The Stanford safety prefers that his name be accorded the Roman numerals because he’s proud of his lineage. Frank II, for instance, was a linebacker who’s in the San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame. He also gave freely of himself for the children of his community before his untimely death, at 29, of a pulmonary embolism.
An eye injury ended Frank III’s football career in high school. Frank IV’s grandmother died of an infection that causes inflammation of membranes around the brain and spinal cord.
No wonder Stanford’s Buncom has a medical career in mind. For the time being, he’d rather deliver hits, and he hopes to apply some against Cal in Saturday’s 120th Big Game.
“It’s an honor to be part of such a storied tradition,” he said. “I think everybody gets excited for it. You see it around campus.”
The redshirt sophomore was recruited as a cornerback out of St. Augustine High School in San Diego. He filled in at safety there when the team needed his run support in the box, such as against Imperial High and Oregonbound tailback Royce Freeman. Buncom said his team handily won that matchup in a playoff game.
As a Stanford freshman in 2015 he broke his hand in training camp and redshirted that season. The next year, in his first start, he had a 26yard pick-six against Washington State.
Because of injuries at safety and a glut of talent at cornerback, secondary coach Duane Akina asked him to step in at safety last spring.
“His first day back there, it was like that’s where he’s supposed to be,” head coach David Shaw said. “We kind of found a safety by accident.” Buncom is fine making the calls for the secondary, Shaw said, because “he knows the whole defense inside and out.”
By his own admission, Buncom struggled with missed tackles early in the season, mainly because the tackling angles are different at safety than they are at corner.
“At cornerback, you’re primarily focused on attacking the running back outside in,” he said, whereas at safety it’s the other way around.
Despite the early problems, he is tied for seventh on the team in tackles with 32. He tied with linebacker Bobby Okereke with a game-high 11 against Washington last Friday night.
Buncom came up with one of the key plays of the game. The Huskies had a 4th-and-1 at the Stanford 18 in the second quarter when Buncom maneuvered among the linemen and stopped Myles Gaskin for no gain. Washington didn’t get that close again until it scored in the final minutes of Stanford’s 30-22 upset.
“I was trying to be sneaky,” Buncom said. “I was trying to hide behind our big defensive linemen. I was maybe 1 yard behind our defensive end when they snapped the ball. The blockers came at him, and I snuck my way in.”
Cal’s offense has changed considerably with head coach Justin Wilcox replacing Sonny Dykes, he said. “They like to run the ball a little more,” he said. “They (also) like to go vertical more, whereas last year they liked to use the passing game as their running game.”
Either way, there may be opportunities for a Beast Named Frank.