Kole Briehler only has to focus on football and academics during his senior year at the Hun School this school year.
If that doesn’t sound like much, take into consideration what the Pennington resident had to go through before verbally committing to Stanford recently.
“People don’t understand how much there is with recruiting,” Briehler said. “Just getting calls every day, texts, stuff in the mail. You’ve got coaches telling you this, telling you that. It kind of just really stresses you out. I’m really happy I can just focus on football now.”
That ability to focus did not come easy, but such is the price of talent.
Beginning last summer, coaches came courting and Briehler began a whirlwind tour around the country. His campus visits included Boston College, Penn State, Rutgers, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio State, Michigan, Oklahoma and Stanford. Asked if he could do any sight-seeing off-campus, he said: “Not really. You’d be surprised how much they pack into each day. It’s crazy.”
After a lot of angst, pressure and confusion, Briehler narrowed his final three to Ohio State, Oklahoma and Stanford.
“If you ask my friends, depending on the week it was a different school,” he said. “I was so indecisive. I was being told all these different things. Recruiting is definitely not a straight line. There’s so many things that happen and change in such a short period of time and you have to adapt to that.”
Briehler eventually turned down several storied programs for the academics of Stanford, which is ranked No. 3 in Best Global Universities. The average grade point average of students just applying to the California university is 3.9. Kole carried a 4.2 GPA after two years at Hopewell Valley Central High. Since reclassifying at Hun and repeating his sophomore year, he has a 92 grade point ranking (out of 100) the past two years.
“I always knew Kole was a secret nerd,” Hun coach Todd Smith said with a laugh. “He’s really into math, he loves numbers, he takes school seriously. He’s a super motivated learner. He saw all the things that Stanford had to offer. Both from a football standpoint and an academic standpoint. It was just too hard for him to pass up. He knows his football is gonna have a shelf life, but that Stanford degree you hang on the wall forever.”
Briehler admitted that was the deciding factor.
“That was probably the biggest difference maker,” he said. “Football is great and I love it but you never know how long you’re gonna be playing for. At Stanford they call it two Plan As. You don’t have a Plan A and a Plan B. You have your Plan A, which is going to the NFL. Your second Plan A is to get your Stanford degree and that opens all kinds of doors for you.”
With that being said, Briehler’s decision obviously took football into account. Entering this season, he is ranked the No. 21 defensive tackle in the nation and No. 8 in New Jersey by Rivals.com. ESPN has him rated the No. 17 best overall player in the state.
“He’s got a chance to be one of the all-time best we’ve had here,” said Smith, who has coached numerous Division I players in his 10 years at Hun.
In looking at Stanford from a football aspect, Briehler saw a team in need of defensive tackles moving into a conference where pass rushing linemen are coveted. The Cardinal have left the near-defunct PAC 10 for the Atlantic Coast Conference, which features some wide open offenses.
“The ACC has had guys like (three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year) Aaron Donald, they’re not as tall as guys in the SEC or the Big 10. It’s a conference that allows me to play to my strengths, which is pass rushing and not always having to eat up double teams. It’s a lot of spread out offenses with a lot of passing which is something I really like.”
Briehler is not overly tall for a lineman at 6-foot-3, 275 pounds. But he plays big when necessary.
“He’s everything you look for,” Smith said. “He’s big enough and strong enough where he can play against larger kids than him. And we haven’t met a kid that he’s not quicker than.
“He is an absolute dude. Just strong, fast, flexible, powerful. He just comes off the ball really twitched up. You’re talking about a 275-pound kid who runs a 4.7 40.”
Briehler has been a lineman ever since convincing his parents to move from recreation flag football to tackle football in fourth grade. Briehler played in the West Jersey Youth Football League for the Hopewell Bulldogs under HVCHS head coach Dave Caldwell.
In eighth grade, knee surgery sidelined Kole for the season. But showing the kind of teammate he is, he attended every practice and game to stay involved.
“I always wanted to be around it,” he said. “I really missed it, so I worked really hard coming off that off-season going into my freshman year.”
Covid-19 hit prior to his entering high school. With his parents the owners of PEAC Performance in Ewing, Kole and his brother took advantage of the empty training center to enjoy their own private workouts throughout the pandemic.
“I didn’t really start lifting weights until that Covid pandemic,” Briehler said. “When PEAC shut down we were there every day lifting weights, seven days a week through that whole pandemic. That’s when I really started putting on some muscle.”
He bulked up from 175 pounds to over 200 and it paid off. Briehler played one game for the Bulldogs freshman team before being elevated to varsity. He made 25-½ tackles with one sack that year but it was a culture shock.
“I played one game my first week where I was bigger and moving everybody around,” he recalled. “And I go to being the smallest guy on the line on varsity. It was really tough.”
After a sophomore season with 30 tackles, one sack and 6-½ tackles for loss, Briehler engaged in talks with Smith about moving to Hun. The lure of the academics was a no-brainer and with a roster loaded with D-1 players, the football program is consistently on college coaches’ radar.
The toughest part of Briehler’s transfer was telling Caldwell.
“That decision was not easy for me,” he said. “I was back and forth, back and forth. I made sure I had that conversation face to face before I posted anything because to this day I still talk to him. I have so much respect for Coach Caldwell and what he’s done to help me. He’s definitely a huge part of this journey. I just felt that it was what I had to do for myself and I thanked him for everything.”
Widely known as one of the class acts in Mercer County football, Caldwell made it easy for the young player.
“There were no bad feelings,” Briehler said. “He said ‘I wish you the best.’ Obviously he wishes I stayed, but he said, ‘I support you all the way, if you need to come to the weight room feel free to stop by.’ It went really well.”
Upon arriving at Hun, Briehler was told he had to put on even more weight. He began shoveling the food and continued his lifting regimen.
The Raider coaches originally wanted him as a tight end/fullback/defensive end. But as he grew in strength, he became a defensive tackle and guard/center. Defensively, he went against his toughest opponents in practice.
“We had three guys on the offensive line that first year — one went to Illinois, one went to Oklahoma and one went to Michigan,” Briehler said. “So it was really hard. But I adapted. I owe a lot to Owen Wafle (now at Michigan). He was another d-lineman and helped me out getting adjusted and playing at a higher level.”
Smith felt that being surrounded by “like-minded kids looking to get to the next level” helped push Briehler to another level.
“Now when he comes into the room he wants to be the strongest kid in the room, he wants to be the most powerful,” the coach said. “He has truly become one of our best leaders we’ve ever had. He’s our captain going into this season, he takes over the weight room, takes over the stretch lines. He’s our rah rah guy and he leads by example.”
Briehler suffered a shoulder injury in the last game of the 2023 season but has recovered and is stronger than ever. Smith noted he squatted 640 pounds three times in summer workouts.
“Without question he’s the strongest kid we’ve ever had in the weight room at Hun,” the coach said. “It’s not even close.”
Briehler’s work on the field, in the weightroom and in the classroom – the latter he credits to his parents for pushing him academically – made it easy to choose a school when it came to his future.
“Once we saw everything Stanford could offer us, it was a no brainer,” said Briehler, who’s looking to major in economics. “The academic level doesn’t even compare to any other school I talked to. They have a great need right now for defensive linemen and their defensive line coach (Ross Kolodziej) is a really great guy. It was a perfect fit all around.”
With that need filled, Briehler can look forward to a stress-free senior year in which football, academics and a social life will be all he needs to worry about.
Hun football player Kole Briehler is already committed to attend Stanford University next fall.,
