Walk-on LB Barnwell playing with first team
BOCA RATON — Florida Atlantic linebacker Hosea Barnwell V tried to join the Owls last year. Enrolled as a regular student at FAU, Barnwell approached the Owls’ coaching staff about walking on to the team.
“Coaching staff basically denied me, told me they’re not taking walk-ons at the time,” Barnwell said. “I’d have to try out next season.”
Following a coaching change that ousted Charlie Partridge and inserted Lane Kiffin, next season has arrived for Barnwell. Now, he finds himself with the starting defense.
“I guess it’s our small version of Rudy,” Kiffin said, referencing the famous Notre Dame walk-on.
Due to a pair of undisclosed injuries to Rashad Smith and Khantrell Burden, Barnwell was elevated to the first-team defense the past three practices. He has taken snaps at middle linebacker (also called Mike), pushing Azeez Al-Shaair over to weak-side linebacker (Will).
The preseason playing time is part of a winding road for Barnwell that led him to the top of FAU’s depth chart. Barnwell played high school football at Hialeah American in Miami and received a handful of Division I scholarship offers.
Originally, he committed to Buffalo, but de-committed from there in order to pledge to Syracuse. But Syracuse fired coach Scott Shafer, throwing Barnwell’s plan in flux. So he attended FAU in the fall of 2016.
Kevin Smith, previously an assistant at UCF and now FAU’s running backs coach, recruited Barnwell. Smith monitored him at FAU last year and convinced Barnwell to follow him to Orlando for the 2017 season. Instead, Smith took a job at FAU and invited Barnwell to join the Owls as well.
“I got a phone call in December, before Christmas, he told me to stay at FAU and come join the legacy,” Barnwell said. “You just got to be mentally focused. You got to have the mindset to want it. You got to have the want-to and the drive. It was pretty tough, but I always had in the back of my head that I was going to play for this team, whether it was a coaching change or not.”
Barnwell, listed at 6-foot and 210 pounds, impressed coaches in spring practice while headlining a depleted linebackers corps. Kiffin called him the MVP of the spring game and named him the MVP of Saturday’s scrimmage in Liberty City.
“Hosea played really well in there, along with Azeez,” Kiffin said. “Those two guys were the inside ’backers, and I thought they did a really good job of being physical and playing it like a game.”
Kiffin didn’t know a about Barnwell when first joined the Owls lot he in March, but quickly learned about his physicality. Barnwell is a wrecking ball on the defense, delivering punishing hits throughout preseason camp, even though the Owls have not tackled yet.
Last Thursday, he hit running back Kerrith Whyte Jr. hard during red zone drills. Saturday, he crushed receiver James Brunson to force an incomplete pass. Barnwell called the hit on Brunson his hardest hit ever.
“That’s what I do,” Barnwell said. “I’ve been starting since I was five. Contact was the first thing I learned.”
It would have been easy to discount Barnwell’s strong spring as a flash in the pan while the Owls main linebackers sat on the sideline. But the Owls coaching staff pegged Barnwell as a contributor for this season.
“He was playing with the ones at times and doing a great job,” Kiffin said. “We all thought this guy was going to play a lot for us this year, regardless of other guys coming in or backup injuries.”
mdefranks@ sun-sentinel.com