Gainesville Sun
8/26
Travis Timmons, a 6-foot-5, 287-pound defensive tackle/tight end, has 4.82 40 speed.
Following long line of family athletes Timmons grows into top D-1 prospect
By JOHN PATTON
Sun high school sports editor
August 25. 2005 6:01AM
Some prospects enter the public eye as underclass phenoms. Others don't grab the attention of the masses until they are seniors and colleges begin taking notice.
Count Travis Timmons among the latter crowd.
After a relatively quiet first couple of seasons at Buchholz, Timmons began intriguing various dot.com recruiting sites after a tremendous summer where he shined in camps at Florida, Georgia and South Florida, as well as the Nike combine in Tallahassee and Gainesville's MSL combine.
Now, the 6-foot-5, 287-pound defensive tackle/tight end with 4.82 40 speed and a 330-pound bench press has everyone on notice.
He said he has received scholarship offers from UF, Georgia, Virginia Tech, Illinois, USF, Florida State,
Ohio State, Central Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kansas State and Maryland. Miami, Oklahoma, Alabama and Mississippi State have expressed serious interest and coaches at those schools have said offers could be forthcoming. Timmons said the SEC schools primarily like him as a defensive tackle, while Big 12 and ACC schools see him as either a tight end or offensive lineman.
"He's an animal," Santa Fe receiver Melvin Patterson said. "Off the field, he's a nice guy - cool, calm and collected. But on the field, he is a big guy who can run and will hit you hard."
Always has been.
Back when he was a junior varsity player, friends started calling Timmons "Cookie" because he was admittedly a bit soft. He didn't like that much, so as kids do, they pushed it even more to mess with the big guy.
During one game, teammate Steven Davis called Timmons "Cookie" in the huddle. Timmons responded by hitting an opposing player so hard on the next play that a stretcher and ambulance were needed.
The nickname "Cookie" crumbled that day.
Now called "Terrible T", he's no longer soft and is determined to continue a long line of Timmons' family athletes. Father Arthur and uncles Tommy and Vincent Timmons all played football with Vincent playing briefly with the Tampa Bay Bucs, and cousin George, The Sun's 2003 large-school player of the year as a Columbia senior, is a tailback at Miami.
"They've all given me a lot of advice," said Travis Timmons, who, believe it or not, played quarterback as a kid. "They all say I need to get bigger, stronger, faster and go hard every down. My dad and uncles tell me I have to play with good technique, and George tells me to play my heart out."
Timmons, who has one official visit scheduled so far (Illinois on the weekend of Dec. 17), acknowledges his junior season, which saw him catch 12 passes for 146 yards on offense, was disappointing by his standards. But defensively, he has the quickness and strength to beat even the best offensive lineman. And offensively, his size creates mismatches for linebackers and safeties.
"I just didn't fit in real well with a lot of my teammates last year," Timmons said.
Young for a senior - he turns 17 this week - Timmons said any days of immaturity are behind him, something coach Jay Godwin obviously saw when he named Timmons a team captain.
"I'm going to be more vocal and try to push the team in the best way I know how to," Timmons said. "We have a lot of juniors and sophomores, and I'm looking forward to keep the guys going at all times.
"I'm going to bust my butt to get better and to help everyone else get better."
