After stint running campaign, UMass’ Breneman on radar
AMHERST, Mass. — After what turned out to be a brief but much-needed sabbatical from football, Adam Breneman has his life in order.
He is on track to earn an MBA at the University of Massachusetts, playing on the same team as his best friend and heading into his last college season as one of the best tight ends in the country.
The day before he takes his final exams of the spring semester, Breneman is finishing off the final few bites of battered fish in his tacos — a farewell-to-friedfood lunch before two weeks in Southern California working with a nutritionist — and reflecting on all the twists and turns that led him to this point. “If you would have told me we would be here five years ago …” Breneman said. There was no need to finish.
Everything in between then and now, though, has been anything but predictable. Breneman went from potential savior at Penn State to comeback kid at UMass — with a stint as political prodigy in between. “It’s definitely an interesting story to say the least,” Breneman said.
Breneman arrived at Penn State in 2013 still rehabbing the torn right knee ligament that cost him his senior high school season, but already a fan favorite in Happy Valley. Breneman and quarterback Christian Hackenberg were the most ballyhooed members of a signing class that stuck with Penn State when NCAA sanctions from the Sandusky scandal threatened to level the program. By the end of his freshman season, Breneman was playing like a future star.
Another knee injury in the 2014 preseason cost Breneman that season and was far more serious. Breneman had always been fascinated by politics. In the summer of 2015, he shadowed then-Pennsylvania state Rep. Mike Regan for two days at the capitol.
Regan was blown away by Breneman.
When Regan decided to run for the state senate, he offered Breneman a job as campaign manager. With that available, it was easier for Breneman to walk away from football. Though in a letter to Penn State fans, Breneman never said he was retiring.
As campaign manager, Breneman stepped into a fierce fourway Republican primary race that quickly consumed his life. Regan won the primary in a heavily Republican district so the general election in November was a foregone conclusion. One of Regan’s first moves was offering Breneman a job as chief of staff. Breneman accepted.
Then another twist. After four months without football and all the physcial activities that go with it, Breneman’s knee was feeling better. Doctors told him things were looking good.
Now, Ford said, it was Breneman texting him about football. It happened so fast. One day Breneman was lining up staffers for Regan, and then soon after he was suiting up for practice at UMass.