It was almost a decade ago that a San Diego State student named Daniel Brunskill d his intention to launch a career in civil engineering.
Brunskill hadn’t needed directions to Love Library, nor anyone to wrest him from the watering holes on Montezuma Mesa. A serious student, he’d powered through classwork on the likes of geotechnical engineering and reinforced concrete designs, pipe flow and water distribution systems, surveying and highway design. He learned technical material that had its own jargon. EPANTET. ArcGis. AutoCAD Civil 3BD.
Was he a people person, too?
“Have great communications skills and work extremely well in group projects,” Brunskill wrote on his resume.
Was the Valley Center High School alum and San Diego native destined to start his engineering career in his hometown? Assist in solving the region’s ever-growing traffic congestion? Team up on fixing San Diego’s stormwater drainage headaches?
Tucked low in his curriculum vitae was a clue.
“Also, I am a very dedicated athlete, who plays football at San Diego State University,” he wrote in his Linkedin profile. “I spend countless hours perfecting my craft as a player to better help my team. I have been able to develop excellent time management skills, balancing football and school. Playing football and devoting countless hours to the sport allowed me to develop a great work ethic.”
What happened next is this: civil engineering’s loss became football’s gain.
The 30-year-old Brunskill, showing he was dedicated, bright, disciplined and collaborative, has earned an NFL salary the past seven years as an offensive lineman with the Falcons, 49ers and now the Titans in a journey that’s reached eight NFC playoff games and a Super Bowl.
Ensuring he can land a coaching job when he’s done playing, he has worked four years under Xs-and-Os master Kyle Shanahan and now trains under one of football’s great line coaches, Bill Callahan, who molded Morse High School alum Lincoln Kennedy into an All-Pro tackle.
The temptation is to call Brunskill a football overachiever.
After all, no one in the NFL drafted him in 2017.
Trying to exhaust his football options before turning to civil engineering, he ed the Atlanta Falcons for a few bucks and no guarantees.
He stuck on the practice squad for two years, matured further with Mike Martz’s short-lived San Diego Fleet and ed the 49ers under Shanahan.
Many inexpensive blockers who were tough, smart, athletic and undersized carved out NFL careers under Shanahan’s dad, Mike, who won two Super Bowls as a head coach and another as a coordinator.
Kyle effected a similar style. Brunskill parlayed those opportunities into steady work.
He has started 56 NFL games and appeared in 19 others. Most of the ’17 draftees haven’t matched him.
Among those six centers, the only one with more games started or games played is LSU alum Ethan Pocic, who went in the second round to the Seahawks.
Compared with the 11 drafted guards, Brunskill has more starts than all but three: future Pro Bowl tackle Dion Dawkins, Taylor Moton and Dan Feeney, who each went before the fourth round.
At the NFL scouting combine Brunskill performed with the tackles.
Of the 15 tackles drafted weeks later, only Garett Bolles, Ryan Ramczyk and Cam Robinson, who went in the first, first and second rounds, respectively, have exceeded Brunskill’s starts total.
Adding to the “overachiever” case, Brunskill had logged just one season on SDSU’s offensive line after playing three years at tight end.
The 6-foot-5 newbie to the linemen’s world weighed only 273 pounds at the NFL combine. His agility times were only decent as compared to his fellow tackles, despite Brunskill being some 30-50 pounds lighter.
Nor was Brunskill the consensus-best offensive-line prospect to come out of SDSU that year.
Guard Nico Siragusa, who would go to the Ravens in the fourth round only to suffer three torn knee ligaments in his first training camp, was a 316-pound alum of Chula Vista’s Mater Dei High School who could bench-press a school bus.
But has Brunskill really overachieved?
Perhaps not, if his strengths are fully appreciated.
He was athletic enough to succeed as a blocking tight end for three years with the Aztecs, also catching three touchdown es. Chargers Hall of Fame tackle Ron Mix said playing end at USC served him well when he converted to tackle late in his Trojans career. Sid Gillman, Mix’s Hall of Fame coach with the Chargers, liked line prospects who’d played end.
Brunskill’s rare durability at SDSU proved predictive, too.
He’d played in 54 consecutive games, tying a school record for games played. In his only season as a lineman, he earned the unit’s player of the year award.
Not only because he logged 54 games did Brunskill grade well for toughness. Rocky Long, his head coach at SDSU, selected for and developed toughness, the No. 1 trait of a program that posted a .681 win rate in Long’s nine-year run.
As versatile as a utility knife, Brunskill has started NFL games at both tackle spots and each guard position.
Right guard is his best spot. This summer, the 6-foot-5, 300-pound will try once again to retain his starting job by outperforming drafted blockers who are bigger, younger and faster.
If Brunskill can’t hold them off, he might land a backup role.
But given his history, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he starts the Titans’ season opener Sept. 8 at Chicago’s Soldier Field.
Engineering NFL playing time is what he does.
