Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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junior season, and Notre Dame sur- prised him with his first scholarship offer. The next day they traveled to a camp on Ohio State's campus. Brent wasn't happy with his performance in the morning, so he skipped lunch to do a little more work. Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer spotted Brent and the former wide receiver coach offered some pointers. Meyer told Brent if he could find a way to get a little faster he could be a big-time prospect. On his drive back to Indianapolis, Brent committed to Notre Dame. The speed comment, though, stuck in his craw. He wanted to get faster. He started working on getting a better start in the 40-yard dash and becoming more explosive. He turned to Howard, the police offer and competitive power lifter, to make his legs stronger. Their workouts occasionally moved from the crowded school gym to a more serious set up in Howard's base- ment. Brent made himself enough of a regular there that Howard's less-than- friendly Rottweiler and bull mastiff mix stopped barking when he showed up. "There are not many people that can just walk into my house with the dog there," Howard said. "J.B.'s not into partying. His boys will call him and see if he wants to hang out on a Friday night, and he'll say: 'No, I'm training man.' He'll be hanging out with me, I'm 39 years old." Brent sometimes wondered why Carter, Howard and others at Speed- way invested so much time with him, but he always trusted them implic- Brent is ranked as a four-star prospect, the No. 1 player in Indiana, the No. 8 wide receiver in the country and the No. 67 overall recruit in the land by 247Sports. PHOTO COURTESY SPEEDWAY HIGH SCHOOL