BY CLIFF SMELLEY
“Not too many people get the opportunity to play college football.”
Those were the words of Demarius “Duke” Lewis, who earned the chance to be one of those few. He and three of his Bradford High School teammates participated in a Feb. 5 signing ceremony in the BHS auditorium.
Lewis and Jeremiah Hill, who are both defensive ends, are going to the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, a Division II school. Quarterback Zack Paulk also signed with a Division II school — Erskine College in Due West, South Carolina — while linebacker/running back Brian Cliffin will go to Cuthbert, Georgia’s Andrew College, which competes in Division I in the National Junior College Athletic Association.
“It feels really good,” Cliffin said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing. To sit up there (on stage) and sign and be the first person in my family to go (to college) is good.”
Hill said, “It feels real good knowing that everybody can’t do this. It just feels real good. Hard work and dedication have finally paid off.”
“I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity,” Paulk said. “I thank God. I thank my family for motivating me and pushing me and helping me throughout the wait. I’m excited to get to the next level and start competing.”
UNC Pembroke’s newest Braves
Hill said one of the reasons he likes UNC Pembroke is because of its business school.
When it comes to football, he likes the 4-2-5 defense the Braves operate out of. He believes it’ll give him a chance to be versatile.
“They do a lot of good things, especially for my position,” Hill said. “I’m not just playing one position. I’m all over the field. It’ll be a great experience.
Lewis said he likes the UNC Pembroke coaches and the fact they’re really interested in helping prepare young men for life after college.
UNC Pembroke also feels like a place he can be comfortable at.
“It feels like home,” Lewis said.
Lewis was the third-leading tackler for Bradford in 2023 with 104. He was second on the team in tackles for loss with 22.
That was supposed to be Lewis’ final year of high school football, but he was granted an extra year of eligibility by the Florida High School Athletic Association due to time missed because of an injury sustained in an automobile crash. Lewis returned in 2024 and had 38 tackles, but the dropoff was due to an injury.
“Duke, obviously, gave us a shot in the arm a couple of years ago when we made the run to the state-championship game,” Bradford Head Coach Jamie Rodgers said. “This year, in all fairness to him, he tried to battle through a hamstring injury the entire season. He wanted to play. We would say, ‘Hey, man. Maybe we need to sit this one out this week,’ but he always wanted to play. He always wanted to be out there for his teammates.”
Though the injury hampered his play, the extra year of high school ball better prepared him to transition to college. Rodgers said Lewis, who’s 6-3, played at 210-215 pounds in 2023. In 2024, he was up to around 235.
“Physically, he’s more of a college-ready guy now, for sure,” Rodgers said. “He’ll have no problem stepping in.”
Agreeing that the extra year was beneficial, Lewis said, “The time helped me grow as a man — mature a little bit and get my head on straight.”
Rodgers said a 100-percent healthy Lewis will “be as physically gifted as all those guys he’ll be going against” at UNC Pembroke. In fact, in borrowing an NFL term, Rodgers said UNC Pembroke got “the steal of the draft.”
“There’s a good chance he won’t be around (UNC Pembroke) very long,” Rodgers said.
Lewis said what he’ll give UNC Pembroke is someone with a good “motor” on the field as well as someone who enjoys watching video so that he’s prepared for every game.
“I usually know what’s coming before it gets to me,” Lewis said.
Rodgers agreed that Lewis has a “super-high motor.” He also said that Lewis has a lot of upside on the field.
“He’s so long, and he can run,” Rodgers said. “He can really line up off the edge and go rush the passer. We also had a few packages where he would drop and cover the flats. He almost had a couple of interceptions. He can just do it all. He can walk off the line and be an outside linebacker in the 3-4.
“He’s so versatile because he’s such a good athlete.”
As for transitioning to the college game, Lewis said “football is football.” All he has to do, he said, is to keep working hard.
“Stick to the basics, and I believe you’ll get to where you want to be,” he said.
Hill is coming off a season in which he recorded 39 tackles and three sacks. Rodgers believes Hill can improve upon those numbers in college.
“If he’ll learn to play every single play like it’s his last and play full speed all the time, the sky’s the limit for him,” Rodgers said. “He’s got to learn to fall in love with the weight room. If he does that, he’ll have the chance to be a really good college football player.”
Rodgers describes Hill as an “exceptional athlete” who can disrupt opposing offenses.
“Quarterbacks really can’t run away from him,” Rodgers said. “Offensive linemen have a tough time with his speed and quickness.”
Rodgers believes that Hill, at 6-4, 230, could potentially find himself playing on offense at tight end, noting that “he would be a nightmare matchup.” If Hill stays on defense, Rodgers could see him possibly adding 20-30 pounds, move inside the line and still be able to rush the passer.
“He’s got that ability to get a lot bigger and go inside, or he can stay outside and rush off the 5-technique, where the tackles have a tough time with him,” Rodgers said.
Wherever he lines up, Hill said he knows it’ll be an adjustment for him.
“Conditioning is going to be way different in college than it is in high school,” he said, adding that he must “get in the weight room and just stay focused.”
Hill and Lewis both said that they imagine stepping onto the field for the first time as a college player will feel just like the first time they played football.
“It’s square one all over again,” Hill said.
Lewis said, “It’ll feel good.”
Throwing passes for The Flying Fleet
Paulk said he chose Erskine College because of “how much the coaching staff loved me when I went on a visit about two weeks ago.”
He also liked hearing that he’ll immediately be in the mix to start.
“The offensive coordinator was telling me how I had the ability to start year one,” Paulk said. “I’m just ready to get up there and compete.”
Outside of the football program, Paulk said that Erskine appealed to him because of its location in a town with a population of 1,216.
“I like the atmosphere,” he said. “It’s in a small town, so there aren’t too many distractions. That allows me to go up there on a mission — to get ready to play some college ball.”
In Paulk, the Erskine Flying Fleet are getting someone who completed 93 of 149 passes in 2024 for 1,347 yards and 14 touchdowns. Not bad for someone who was playing at a new school his senior year of high school. Rodgers said BHS coaches “threw a lot at him in a hurry and noted that Paulk went from alternating time with other players at Columbia High School to being the full-time starter for a BHS team coming off a season in which it was the state runner-up.
“All those things add a lot of pressure,” Rodgers said. “I thought he handled it great. I thought he handled tough coaching. I thought he handled adversity. There were a lot of times where we didn’t play very well as we have in the past on defense, and we had to score more this year. I thought Zack did a great job of handling all that with the utmost character.”
Paulk, who describes himself as “a very coachable player,” said he’s able to handle whatever’s thrown at him and said his experience at BHS will be a plus moving forward.
“Coach (David) May emphasized my ability to understand things quickly,” Paulk said of the Tornadoes’ offensive coordinator. “I’ve got a good memory. I can understand concepts quickly. That’s something that’s going to help me excel.”
Rodgers said, “He needs to progress in reading coverages and things like that, but that’ll come because he’s disciplined, and he’s going to put in the work.”
Paulk said something he plans to work on in transitioning to the next level is his speed, adding another aspect to his game.
“I know I’m primarily a pro-style passer,” Paulk said, “but I want to get faster and be able to make plays with my feet.
“Other than that, it just comes to understanding defenses and certain schemes that collegiate defenses may try to trick you with.”
When thinking about stepping onto the field for the first time in college, Paulk said, “I think it’s going to feel surreal. There are going to be a lot of emotions.”
He’s sure he’ll be nervous, but Paulk believes he’ll have done all that’s necessary to best prepare him for his collegiate debut.
“I think I’ll be good and ready for the moment,” he said.
From BHS Tornado to Andrew Tiger
Cliffin said two schools wanted him, but said that Andrew showed the most interest, so that’s why he’s off to become a Tiger.
He also likes the atmosphere that the school itself offers.
“It feels exactly like home,” Cliffin said. “It’s nice. There aren’t many people there, so you can focus on school.”
Cliffin said Andrew coaches have talked about him being in the mix at running back, but they also can see him playing at linebacker instead, which is what he played primarily in 2024 for BHS.
He just wants to be on the field, but Cliffin added, “If I did have a preference, I’d have to tote the rock.”
Cliffin got 74 carries at running back in 2023, gaining 440 yards and scoring four touchdowns. He was more important on defense for the Tornadoes in 2024, He got only 11 touches at running back.
“He’s so selfless,” Rodgers said. “He does anything for the team. Whatever the team needs. I know he wanted to run the ball as much as he did as a junior probably, but that’s not what this team particularly needed this year. This year, he had to play every single down at linebacker. He had tons of tackles and sacks. We would walk him down to play defensive end some.
“He’s just so coachable and wants the team to be successful. It’s never about Brian Cliffin. It’s, ‘What’s the best for our team?’ I’d love to coach about 40 Brian Cliffins.”
Cliffin’s 51 tackles in 2024 were the fourth most on the team.
“He’s super physical,” Rodgers said. “He’s a little short (at 5-9), but he’s over 205 pounds — somewhere in that range. Great run stopper. Very smart football player. Most of the time, he was in the position where he was supposed to be.
“What we try to do is take away the run game. He was vital in that. He was our biggest linebacker by far weight-wise and had to take on a bunch of lead blocks, which he did with great success.”
When it comes to Cliffin playing running back, Rodgers said, “One man probably won’t take him down very often.” The coach pointed to Cliffin’s strength and his work in the weight room, where he squats 550 pounds and bench presses over 300 pounds.
“There are a lot of reasons we’re going to miss Brian Cliffin, but his physicality is probably number one,” Rodgers said.
In making a successful transition to college ball, Cliffin said he must “focus, continue to stay in the weight room and learn from the people who are above me.”
Cliffin worked hard to get to this point, but he knows the work isn’t over. It’s one thing to have, as he described it, a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” It’s another to do something with it.
“You can’t take this for granted,” he said. “When you get there, you’ve got to take it, and you’ve got to take it with all you’ve got. Whenever you get to that point, you’ve got to at least put in work.”
