MOBILE, Ala. – If there is one thing that the University of South Alabama's Roman Buchanan has become known for within the Jaguar football program, it's a straight-forward, no-nonsense approach not only to the sport but to any topic in general. Many in life have displayed the passion and conviction that Buchanan holds dear, they don't necessarily wear their heart on their sleeves and share honest opinions as freely as the senior heading into his final regular-season game.
Regardless of where one stands with Buchanan, they are sure to find out sooner rather than later.
"The first day," was the answer provided by fellow senior Devon Earl when posed the question of how long it takes to see how Buchanan works. "Any question I asked or anything we talked about was straight forward, he would shoot you straight whether you liked it or not. I love that in a person, if you're going to tell the truth to me and not tell me what I want to hear but what I need to hear, that's the quality of a good friend and a good teammate.
"Roman and I were roommates as two safeties coming in as freshmen, on the first day I met him we walked around campus with my dad and talked about what we wanted to accomplish while we were here," he continued. "My first impression of Roman was that he was a guy with a plan, he really knew what he wanted to do. Even though we're the same age he has been a role model for me, he was someone I could look at and know he was doing what I was supposed to be doing and that we were striving for the same things. Initially he didn't talk much, but now I understand that he is just a quiet person who is about his business and getting the task done."
"Roman is one of our most direct players, I would say," first-year defensive coordinator Kane Wommack stated. "It's really good because I know exactly where he stands and what I have to do to encourage him in the right ways. When he likes something he is going to tell you and when he doesn't he is going to tell you as well, sometimes you have to manage that. But that being said, with his experience he is really enjoyable to have around."
By his own estimation, Buchanan has always tended to be quiet. It wasn't until high school and college that he would express his opinions on what he saw.
"I think that's my personality as a whole. Growing up as a single child, I didn't say a lot, I was really quiet; but out of that quietness I became very observant of people," he explained. "I notice a lot of subtle things that others don't notice, and I don't have a problem letting you know how I feel. I'm quiet, but when I actually speak I want it to have some meat to it, I want it to be valuable."
In a world that grows more politically correct by the day, there might be a fear that Buchanan could ruffle some feathers within the program. But once fellow teammates and coaches are able to figure out where the passion comes from to express honest opinions, it hasn't been an issue.
"For the most part, after they get to know me, they take it well, but a lot of freshmen and younger guys think I'm being rude because I'm being completely honest and saying it with a straight face," said Buchanan. "The older guys know I'm looking out for our team and for them because at the end of the day it's about us. I try and let the younger guys know that, that I'm further ahead than where they are and if I might have done it another way it would've been easier on me. That's why I'm being brutally honest, not because I'm mean or rude."
"Sometimes when I see him talking to somebody I have to tell them not to take it so hard, you know how Roman is and he is going to shoot you straight," Earl said. "Everybody is not going to take it the correct way, the way I think Roman wants them to take it, but you have to understand that's who he is; he's not going to spare your feelings. Through the years I have learned a lot from him, the way he is willing to come out here and lay his body on the line and go 100 percent every single day — that's something all our young guys can learn from."
Jag head coach Joey Jones believes Buchanan's teammates understand his point of view and have no issue with the messages conveyed. "They take it very well, because he does it in a way where he doesn't demean people — he just tells people like it is," he said. "That's a great trait that Roman has, but he doesn't beat it into them. He will call someone out if they are not doing things the right way, that's what leadership is all about."
Buchanan's straight-forward approach is something that burned inside for a long time before he found reasons and ways to express his opinions, no matter how direct the message.
"That's definitely the case where as I grew up I became a lot more comfortable with it," he said. "My mom used to get calls from teachers asking why I didn't say anything in class, but I was an introverted person. I've never won state championships or anything like that, it got to a point where we weren't winning to the degree that I felt we should be and I was tired of it. It was then that I figured I'm going to say what I have to say, and if you like it you like it and if you don't, oh well. But I'm saying it because I want to win, not because of any personal things going on. It probably picked up my junior year of high school, and I've been known for it after my sophomore year here."
It may have taken Buchanan a while to develop his approach, but not his love of sports. That began in third grade in Daleville, Ala., when he joined his first football team.
"I was on a pee-wee team, a lot of my friends were doing it and we were dominating; it was kind of a tradition in the area," he remembered. "There wasn't really a lot of other constructive things to do in our area back then. I was good at it, I enjoyed it. I used to watch college football and say that's going to be me one day. I just genuinely had a joy for it at a very young age."
Although, as he grew up, it was a different sport that Buchanan believed his career path might follow.
"I actually wanted to be a professional baseball player, I played left field and thought I was pretty good; I started on the varsity team as an eighth grader and played against some pretty good competition including one or two guys who got drafted," he recalled. "That's what I would've liked to have done, but at the end of the day we weren't that good and it was hard to get looks when your team was as bad as we were. On top of that, there wasn't enough emotion in baseball; if you're the kind of person who likes action, baseball really isn't for you."
Actually, Buchanan explored numerous opportunities at Daleville High. In addition to football and baseball, he lettered in basketball, track and weightlifting, and was also a member of the school's JROTC program. "You name it, I did it...if my high school had it I tried it," he stated.
It was during his sophomore year in high school that Buchanan first seriously considered the possibility of playing at the collegiate level. "I had a really good freshman year. I was a safety and I was a little smaller because I was a ninth grader compared to 12th graders, but I had a couple of interceptions and a decent amount of tackles," he said. "I broke my wrist as a sophomore — I had a good game when it happened, and kept playing because it felt like I sprained it — and when I came back from the injury football just seemed a lot easier. I put up a very good highlight tape in five games, that's when I started getting letters here and there."
The first connection was made though an elementary school physical education teacher, whose brother was coaching defensive backs at Georgia Tech at the time. Future USA assistant coach Robert Matthews was recruiting Buchanan at Southern Mississippi as a wide receiver — the two met when Buchanan was in 10th grade — and after going to a satellite camp with his team in Dothan hosted by UAB, where he went up against a Blazer wide receiver recruit and shut him down "over and over" to receive an offer from that program as well.
In fact, Buchanan wasn't initially interested when the DHS squad was headed to Mobile for a defensive camp on the USA campus.
"At the time I didn't want to come to that camp because Auburn was recruiting me pretty heavy before Gene Chizik was fired and Alabama was looking a little bit too, although when the No. 1 safety in the country [Landon Collins] goes to your school you're not going to be looking for safeties," he said. "My mom had a teacher's conference in Birmingham that day and didn't want me staying at home by myself, and she reminded me that I was the team leader and needed go. I got on the little bus and came to Mobile, Alabama, for a two-day camp, and it was kind of the same situation as UAB, I was much better than the competition and caught their eye after one day. They actually offered me a scholarship and asked me to come on a visit during the summer, and when I did that that's when I committed."
Buchanan may have been skeptical about the Jaguar program initially, but once USA's staff had the chance to watch his performance at that camp there was no doubt about their interest in recruiting him.
"Roman's school came to a defensive camp here, we saw him play safety and outside linebacker — he was doing a lot of different things for them — and his body type, his size and speed, and fell in love with him," explained Brian Turner, the Jags' recruiting coordinator at that time. "We were told by his coaches that he is very intelligent — Roman is smart both in regard to academics and football — and that he was a leader, they bragged about how hard a worker he was; that pushed him over the edge in what we were looking for in a safety/linebacker at the time."
"We saw a really good athlete who played on both sides of the ball, we felt like he could be a safety or a linebacker for us and although we didn't know which one at the time — he's very versatile, he can tackle really well and ran well in space — we felt that he would be a great fit for us," added Jones. "And then we got to meet Roman and see what kind of quality person he was, that he had great leadership skills, and knew he was the kind of person we wanted in this program. Whatever I thought he was going to be he has turned out better than that, I had high expectations early and he has exceeded those."
According to Buchanan, it was more than just football that drew his interest in USA.
"I saw a lot of potential. They didn't have a team just a few years before, the cafeteria was brand new, the rec center, Meisler Hall and the field house were new," he said. "The school was in a good area for recruiting, there are always teams in Mobile who are competitive statewide. I knew this was a good place. I knew that if I went to Auburn there were hundreds of greats who had come through there but I could be one of the first to be a great at South Alabama."
At first, Buchanan wasn't sure he would have the ability to make an immediate impact on the field.
"I was about 195 pounds, for my frame I was a little thin, I thought there were going to be a lot of things they could work on because I went to a small school and there were things I genuinely didn't know," he stated. "I wanted to see how it went, but I expected to get redshirted day one walking in because it felt like i was playing catch up. After three days of camp I thought I could do it, I got some confidence. I played a little bit against Southern Utah and then we were at Tulane and I deflected a pass on a third down, made a couple of plays on special teams. Their receiver, Ryan Grant, was eating us alive, and on a third-and-25 [former assistant] coach [Kevin] Sherrer told us what route was coming and what was going to happen, and the safety in front of me gave it up for a touchdown. Coach Sherrer turned around and looked at me — he was hot — and said, 'I'm done with him, you're in the rest of the game.' I was stunned, but I went in and had one interception and another they overruled, and after that I thought I could do this."
He finished that fall with 35 stops and three passes broken up in addition to the interception, moving into a full-time starting role the next year. Buchanan would be credited with a career-best 74 tackles — including 3½ behind the line of scrimmage — and seven passes defensed in 2014 while helping the Jaguars to their first-ever postseason bowl appearance at the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl, then was chosen second-team all-Sun Belt last season following a performance that included 67 tackles and two interceptions.
But after his junior season, with Wommack joining the staff, Buchanan was asked to make a change heading into his senior year and move to linebacker. The process began in spring practice, and heading into Saturday's Senior Day match-up with New Mexico State he has already recorded career highs with 75 total stops and eight tackles for loss.
"Individually I have no regrets, no matter what happens through the rest of this year I am 100 percent at peace with everything because I feel I have given this university everything I have. I have put my being into this," said Buchanan. "There have been situations, and maybe even people, I don't like, but in the midst of that I didn't let it affect my effort and attitude. I'm walking out of South Alabama with a smile on my face.
"Some days I've hated it, some days I've loved it. As far as the scheme my role isn't that hard, but breaking my hand has hindered me a little bit because I can't get off blocks as efficiently as I have in the past. It was going great until two to three games ago, I was playing very well. The transition hasn't been that hard, I think one of my best attributes is that I am a very fast learner, I retain information pretty well. If you taught me how to pass protect on the offensive line I would do it at a very high level even though I can't block big defensive linemen."
"First and foremost it was a process. Roman wants to do what's right for him but he also cares about the team, and I thought it was the perfect fit for where he might go moving forward in his career as well as what we needed at that linebacker position, which is so critical in our defense," Wommack stated. "His reaction time and understanding of what is going on — he is moving at a little bit faster pace because you have to trigger faster at linebacker than you do at safety, where you can read things as they play out — has consistently improved throughout the year. I've been pleased with him from that regard, and he still has a lot of upside as a linebacker moving forward.
"His willingness to take on that challenge is what will help him do what he wants to do in the future."
Looking back, how would Buchanan — the older, more outspoken version — approach his younger self with an evaulation of play early in his collegiate career? Not much different than he does his teammates now.
"I would tell him to work on becoming a better tackler, you aren't quite strong enough to take down grown men so learn to tackle a little lower, you're not in high school and can't 'big hit' everybody," he said. "Work on your ball skills; I had a tougher time catching the ball as a freshman, college quarterbacks throw it a lot harder than a high school quarterback. And learn to watch film.
"I didn't really learn how to watch film until the seventh game of my freshman year. I would watch film, but I didn't know what I was looking at."
Buchanan hopes the near future includes continuing to play at the professional level. And if he is able to have success in that transition, he will draw on experiences both before and at South to make that happen.
"The good thing is that in my arsenal I can play safety, I can play linebacker, I can play a hybrid position and I can play special teams. I'm much more marketable than your typical defensive player going into this situation," he observed. "More than likely it will be as an undrafted free agent, and I think that's because they will always give the 'big-school' guys the benefit of the doubt. But 30 percent of the NFL is made up of undrdafted free agents so it's not a big deal.
"I didn't have much exposure coming out of high school so I am used to it. Honestly, it really ticks me off; in camp people are really going to see the chip on my shoulder, they are going to feel my presence on every play.
"But if I don't make it, it will be OK because I have my degree. I know what I want to do."
Buchanan will receive that degree in exercise science when the school's graduation ceremony takes place next Saturday at the Mitchell Center. It is Buchanan's hope that when his football career is finished that education path will help him enter another field where physical fitness is paramount.
"I want to be a tactical strength and conditioning coordinator," he explained. "The military is breaking away from its traditional standards — push-ups, sit ups, the mile run — and doing things that can prevent a lot of issues that former military guys have with knees, ankles, backs being shot. The muscle imbalances in those guys are crazy, so they are bringing in strength and conditioning coaches now to reverse that in hopes that the things they do in the field won't be so hard on their bodies because they've been trained properly. My dream job would be to work with the special forces, high-level, elite-status soldiers.
"I don't want to be a sport strength and conditioning coach, but in whatever community I live I would like to train high school kids, to mentor them not only in sports but in the classroom."
And when Buchanan works with individuals in the future — whether they are enrolled in the military or yet to enter college — one can be sure they will get nothing but honest feedback whether or not they are prepared for that kind of evaluation. It's something that has been a consistent part of his own development long before he set foot on South's campus.
"He is such a — the word I use is — 'for real' person, he has a lot of substance to him," observed Jones. "When you meet him, talk to him and look him in the eyes, you can tell that he has a lot of great stuff inside of him, and I think that's why people gravitate to him and respect him so much. When I think of Roman that's what I think about."
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
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