Former Milford High quarterback Brady Olson makes first career start for UMass football

On Saturday afternoons and nights, in college football backdrops with names like The Big House, Happy Valley, Death Valley and just Tuscaloosa, where attendance measures out to six figures, your voice, as hard as you try, would be recorded as barely a whisper.

On the other hand, on Sept.11 at UMass’ McGuirk Alumni Stadium, a small vessel of Milford-centric rooters among the 12,118 in attendance made their voices heard.

They had come to watch UMass slender freshman quarterback Brady Olson try his best against substantial favorite Boston College. It was a formidable task for the kid. He blanked out the crowd, mostly.

“I did hear my sister Olivia,” he said. “She was the closest.”

Olivia, a basketball and volleyball player as a high school senior, set up shop down by the stadium’s first rows.

On June 6, Olson graduated from Milford High. Two days later he packed and left for UMass orientation … and football.

“He didn’t even blink,” said his father, Brian. “It’s been football for Brady twenty-four-seven since then.”

Brian and his wife, Debbie, led a contingent of about 50, relatives, neighbors and high school friends of Olson. UMass got clobbered, 51-7, by Pittsburgh in its season opener and starting quarterback Tyler Lytle was injured, putting him on the sidelines for the Boston College game.

So next man up, even though Olson is just 18 to Lytle’s 23.

More:Olson named a Daily News All-Star for football

“My wife and I were very nervous,” Brian said. “We didn’t know how it would go.”

When Olson threw an early interception, his dad relaxed. Sort of. “I felt he got that out of his system. Now he can just play.”

And play Olson did, becoming a person of interest for BC with his 14-for-29, 214 yards passing and three touchdown flings. And the way the 6-foot-4, 200-pound Olson flung the ball was eye-opening.

“In the first series I got a sense of the speed of the game,” said Olson, who was a Daily News All-Star for football at Milford High. “I thought I had decent mechanics.”

The suspense of not knowing if he’d be the starter was somewhat eased during the prep week. “I was taking reps with the 1’s,” Olson said. “Once the game started it was like, just play,” a moment in time he’d dreamed about “since I was five or six.”

With Lytle injured the UMass coaching staff went into QB evaluation mode. On the Thursday before the game, they picked Olson to face BC. Via Zoom, Olson let his parents in on it. He barely uttered a word before his dad sized up the reason for the call.

“I could tell by his tone and the look on his face,” the dad said.

Olson was ready for his close-up.

“We started working with him when he was 6 or 7,” recalled Dale Olson, Milford High’s football coach and Olson’s uncle.

Dale was not at the game, home instead preparing for Milford’s game against Wellesley. He watched on TV as his nephew put a fright in BC, and this is what went through Dale’s mind.

“I was thinking about the last time he threw a pass for me. It was against Taunton and it was a touchdown,” the Milford head coach said. “I’m happy he got the opportunity to play at 18, a true freshman. He looked calm. No panic.”

Read More:It was an Olson family affair on the Milford High gridiron

Olson is ready for it. “He’s going to be a real good college quarterback,” Dale said.

Olson looked real good on his sideline bomb to Rico Arnold, which resulted in a 56-yard TD. Olson will bottle that one in his memory bank forever.

And his Milford loyalists will be wearing out the highway to Amherst looking for more in the foreseeable future. Olson will be the starter on Saturday (3:30 p.m.) at McGuirk against Eastern Michigan.

Now Brian Olson, a fine athlete himself at Medway High, didn’t quite see this coming so soon for his son. “No, not at all,” he said. “I thought they might redshirt him or use him sporadically. When he was number 2 on the depth chart – that shocked us.”

But as the BC game progressed – it ended 45-28 – there was a moment when Brian and Debbie just looked at each other and knew only like parents can. “Brady was going to be OK,” said his dad.

“We’re super proud,” Dale said. “We know how much Brady put into this.”

While there were doubters along the way, “Brady had a chip on his shoulder. So this is special.”

Special indeed. The Milford caravan will be packing up soon for the second game of Brady Olson’s new world. So let’s hear it, Olivia.

Lenny Megliola can be reached at lennymegs41@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @lennymegs.