Myles Brennan’s Rock-A-Chaw Legacy

Quarterback Myles Brennan had an incredibly successful high school football career for his Catholic school in southern Mississippi.  He piloted the mighty St. Stanislaus Rock-a-Chaws to a 34-8 record and two state championship game appearances prior to ending his high school football career in the fall of 2016.

Yes, Brennan’s high school football team is nicknamed the Rock-a-Chaws.

Over 100 years ago, the school’s Father Macarius penned a poem about the football team and its very unique nickname.  One of the stanzas goes:

“In this favored spot stands a college grand

Famed for its athletes throughout the land.
Its football squad is a husky bunch
With brawn and brains–I have a hunch.
And casting around for a name to present
The qualities which to their enemies meant.
Confusion, disaster, and horrid death’s jaws,
They hit on a name of “The Rock-A-Chaws.”

The name “Rock-a-Chaw” is Choctaw Indian for “devil grass.”

Those of us living in the South refer to them as burrs.  The overly abundant prickly sand burrs in southern Mississippi easily adhere to your socks and can be both treacherous and painful to remove.

Yes, those Rock-a-Chaws don’t give up easily.

As we review the college football career of Myles Brennan, he has been the embodiment of a true Rock-a-Chaw in college, too.  He has stuck around for years and has been very hard to remove.  On Monday, Myles Brennan finally pulled himself away from the university where he had become so very attached.

Leaving high school, Myles Brennan had established Mississippi high school records for passing yardage in a career (15,138) and touchdown passes (166).   One of the most sought-after high school quarterbacks in the nation, Brennan signed a scholarship to play college football a few hours to the west in Baton Rouge at LSU.

The 6’4”, 210 pound quarterback with golden locks had the look of success as he entered the LSU program in 2017.   The Tigers were entering their first season under new head football coach, Ed Orgeron.  Coach O had taken over as interim head coach of the Tigers during the middle of the 2016 season after long-time coach Les Miles was fired.

LSU was now starting over.

Freshman quarterback sensation Myles Brennan was ready to light it up on the field for the Bengal Tigers.   Coach Les Miles’ quarterbacks had been programmed to be second banana to LSU’s vaunted running game.  Though LSU had signed plenty of talented quarterbacks during the Les Miles years, his team’s offensive philosophy remained a throwback Big Ten-styled smash-mouth type of running team.

With a tall, mobile gunslinger quarterback like young Myles Brennan now coming to Tigertown, LSU’s passing game options for new head coach Ed Orgeron were looking up entering the 2017 college football season.

During Brennan’s first season in Baton Rouge, he sat patiently and watched as senior quarterback Danny Etling (who is now a back-up quarterback for the Green Bay Packers) led LSU to a 9-4 record and a #18 final ranking.  Myles Brennan was able to get onto the field and play in six games as a freshman.  He completed 14 of 24 passes for 184 yards and one touchdown for the season.   It was a positive start, but Brennan was itching to play more next year.

As Danny Etling departed, sophomore quarterback Myles Brennan was excited for his chance to lead the LSU Tigers.  Unfortunately, the Tigers football team would welcome a transfer quarterback from Ohio State by the name of Joe Burrow to the humidity of Baton Rouge.

Like Brennan, Joe Burrow had been a high school sensation in the state of Ohio.  After three seasons of riding the bench at Ohio State, Burrow desperately wanted to have a chance to show his stuff.  Coach Orgeron and LSU opened the door, and Joe Burrow grabbed the stage.

In the 2018 season, Joe Burrow (with two years of eligibility remaining) quickly took over the quarterback position at LSU and led the Tigers to a 10-3 record and a #6 final ranking.   Meanwhile, Myles Brennan was relegated to sidelines clipboard duty once again.  He played in just one game against Rice (going 4-6 for 65 yards in mop-up duty).  Brennan was given a redshirt for the year which gave him an additional one extra year of football eligibility.

Two years into his LSU football career, Myles Brennan was now stuck on the bench behind a quarterback who would eventually set a number of records in the next year.   Brennan loved LSU and his football teammates and came back for his third year in 2019.

In 2019, Myles Brennan (still the back-up quarterback) was part of LSU’s greatest football team.  The 15-0 Tigers won the national championship led by starting quarterback, Joe Burrow.  Burrow would go on to become the #1 overall draft pick of the Cincinnati Bengals and play in the Super Bowl this past February.

For his part, Myles Brennan played in ten games for LSU in 2019.  In mostly fourth quarter action, he completed 24-40 passes for 353 yards and one touchdown.   However, Myles Brennan earned a national championship ring as part of this incredible LSU football team.

Entering his fourth season in Baton Rouge (with one year of football eligibility left), Myles Brennan was poised to grab the reins and lead the Tigers in 2020.

Unfortunately, the 2020 LSU Tigers had become a shadow of their national championship season persona as the team lost 14 starters to the NFL.  Myles Brennan finally earned the starting quarterback job in his fourth year in Baton Rouge.  Making matters worse for Brennan, LSU’s top returning wide receiver (Ja’Marr Chase) decided to sit out the entire season to avoid injuries as he focused on becoming a future NFL draft selection.

Speaking of Rock-a-Chaw moments, you might remember that the 2020 college football season was played during COVID-19 restrictions.  While LSU’s rabid fan base was coming off a stellar national championship season, the pandemic forced the 102,000 seat Tiger Stadium to become a COVID “safe space” limited to just 21,000 mask-wearing football fans.  As Myles Brennan took to the field for his home opener against Mississippi State, 80% of Tiger Stadium was empty!

Myles Brennan’s 2020 season opener would feature yet another record performance.

This time, it was by Mississippi State quarterback K. J. Costello.  He torched LSU’s Swiss cheese defense for an SEC record 623 yards and five touchdowns as the Bulldogs surprised LSU 44-34 on national television.  For his part, Myles Brennan passed for 345 yards and three scores but also had two interceptions in the loss.

During LSU’s third game of the 2020 season, Brennan passed for 430 yards and four touchdowns, but Louisiana’s Tigers fell to the Missouri Tigers 45-41.  Brennan suffered an abdominal injury at some point of the Mizzou game.  The injury would keep him sidelined for the remainder of the abbreviated 10-game season.  LSU finished with a disappointing 5-5 record.

As Myles Brennan’s fifth year at LSU rolled around in 2021, his bad luck continued.  Just a few weeks before the all-important fall practices started, Brennan suffered a freak fishing accident where he fell and broke his left (non-throwing) arm after tripping on the fishing dock.

His father, Owen Brennan, told a New Orleans radio station, “He could have been anywhere, anytime, and this accident could have happened. It was just an absolute freak accident. He was not doing anything that he was not supposed to be doing.”

Myles Brennan would be granted a medical redshirt in 2021 and allowed a rare sixth season of college football eligibility in 2022.

In November, 2021, Coach Ed Orgeron said that Myles Brennan would be entering the transfer portal and leave LSU.  By that time, he had already secured an undergraduate degree from LSU in sport administration.

After the 2021 season ended, Ed Orgeron was fired.

Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly was hired to lead the Tigers.  After visiting with Coach Kelly, Myles Brennan decided to stick around and give it one final try at LSU this fall in 2022.

The new LSU coach signed a highly prized Louisiana high school recruit (Walker Howard) and encouraged a veteran starting quarterback from Arizona State (Jayden Daniel) to join the Tigers, too.

The quarterback room at LSU became quite crowded this spring and summer.   Though the “OG” Myles Brennan had literally seen it all at LSU in five years at the school, he desperately wanted one final chance to be the team’s starting quarterback this fall.

As LSU’s 2022 season beckons, it became clear to Myles Brennan that he was heading for another year as the most experienced clipboard holder in college football.

On Monday, Brennan decided to take his football and head home again for good.

“I am forever grateful for every opportunity I’ve been given, every obstacle I’ve overcome, and every second I’ve been a Tiger. However, after five seasons, it is time for me to start a new chapter in my life. I am announcing today that I will be stepping away from football. I am thankful for where this journey has taken me so far, and I am looking forward to where it takes me next.”

Myles Brennan’s football career at LSU was definitely full of Rock-a-Chaws.

He persevered through some early bad timing and then a few untimely injuries as he has now become a “What if…” college football legend in Baton Rouge.

Don’t feel sorry for Myles Brennan.  This talented high school football star earned a college degree, a national championship ring, and made hundreds of lifelong friends in more than five years at LSU.

This St. Stanislaus High School Rock-a-Chaw stuck with it through good times and bad.  His experience at LSU will prove invaluable down the road.