SE: K-State FB Alum Brandon Banks Enjoying Successful CFL Career
Jun 23, 2017 | Football, Sports Extra
Brandon Banks knew some of the names, players like Henry "Gizmo" Williams, people who made a career in the Canadian Football League out of blistering speed. Banks never thought he would be one of those names.
Growing up in North Carolina, Banks said he was always an "NFL guy." It's the dream he chased and reached, but after three seasons and 41 games with the Washington Redskins, league interest in the 5-foot-7 speedster began to wane.
In 2013, the former K-State receiver and return specialist decided to look north for playing opportunities. He landed with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Ontario, where he's been ever since, adding his name among some of the greatest CFL returners in the league's history.
"I'm up here enjoying myself," Banks said. "I'm going to keep playing until they peel me off the field."
Given Banks' production thus far, the 29-year-old's name will be even harder to peel out of the CFL record books.
Entering his fifth CFL season, Banks ranks fifth on the league's all-time list for career return touchdowns with 10. This list includes kick, punt and missed field goal returns, the last of which are more prevalent in the CFL than the NFL. With six more return touchdowns, Banks would move to second behind Williams, a CFL Hall of Famer who collected 32 in his 14-year Canadian career.
To look at Banks' feats another way, he's averaged one return touchdown every 5.3 games — 10 touchdowns in 53 games. Only Bashir Levingston, second on the all-time return touchdown list, scored more frequently on special teams with one every 5.2 games.
Like Banks, Williams (5-foot-6) and Levingston (5-foot-9) were both undersized by American football standards. Even by Canadian measures they were smaller than nearly everyone in the league, but they benefitted from a few nuances of the CFL.
Most notably, a CFL field is larger than its American counterpart. A CFL field is 110 yards long and 65 yards wide with 20-yard end zones, as opposed to the American parameters of 100 yards by 53.3 yards with 10-yard end zones.
Additionally, the CFL doesn't allow returners to fair catch punts. Instead, the league has a "halo rule" in place where the punting team's players must leave the returner a five-yard cushion from when he touches ball, creating more return opportunities.
For stubbornly evasive returners like Banks, these differences allow their return skills to shine.
"Coming to the CFL has definitely worked well for me. Considering the type of football player that I am, the CFL suits my game best," he said. "I'd always been an NFL guy, coming from the south, but when I got here, within the first two or three weeks of learning the game of the CFL, I took notice that the guys that play with my type of style really have a good career up here. So I embraced it and have been in love with it ever since."
Banks adapted to a host of other differences between the Canadian and American versions of football as well. The CFL allows offenses three downs instead of four to move the chains and each team can have 12 players on the field, one more than in the U.S., which Banks said was a "major adjustment" in terms of reading defenses as a receiver.
"Other than that," Banks said, "it's still football."
It's still the game Banks grew up loving and excelling at, despite playing at a size that very few can take to any professional level. Then again, his size has always been a source of motivation.
"I carry a chip every down, every play, every season. It's just a little bit more motivation," said Banks, listed at 150 pounds. "I don't look like an average football player, so I definitely continue to be overlooked from time to time or be underestimated from time to time. I just use that as motivation to go out there and continue to play the game of football that I've been playing since I was a little kid."
Last season, Banks moved into a tie for second in CFL history for career missed field goal return touchdowns (3), doing so with a highlight-reel 126-yard return. He also became the Tiger-Cats' all-time kickoff-return yardage leader (3,047) and earned his third East Divisional All-Star honor.
"I definitely take a lot of pride in it because I know I have a lot of kids looking up to me," Banks said. "There are a lot of kids who don't think they can play because they're too small to play this big-man game."
While Banks has never been the focal point of any offense at the professional level, he has had more opportunities as a receiver in the CFL. In four seasons, Banks has tallied 1,220 receiving yards on 105 catches for 10 touchdowns, along with 268 rushing yards on 46 carries.
"I just enjoy having the ball. I embraced this role and I'll do whatever the coach wants me to do and the team needs me to do," Banks said. "Obviously, my strength is special teams, so I definitely have to be a team player and embrace that role. But anyway I can get the ball in my hands, I love it."
In two years at K-State (2008-09), Banks racked up 1,754 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns, while totaling the second-most career kick return yards (1,625) in school history. His 1,127 yards on kickoff returns as a senior, in head coach Bill Snyder's first year back, also ranks second in K-State history for a single season.
"He definitely emphasized that special teams is just as important as offense and defense. That's why I really, really liked Coach Bill Snyder because he didn't forget about it," Banks said. "Some coaches will forget about special teams and that third part of the game and just focus on offense and defense, and he really emphasized that special teams is just as important."
As his fifth CFL season begins on Sunday against Toronto, Banks has set a few important goals to achieve.
"Staying healthy," Banks started, "and then winning a Grey Cup."
Hamilton reached the Grey Cup — the CFL's version of the Super Bowl — in Banks' first two seasons with the team, losing both times by a combined 10 points.
To help send his team to the Grey Cup in 2014, his first full season with the Tiger-Cats, Banks set a CFL record for most punt-return yards in a playoff game with 226, which included two touchdowns to tie another playoff record. Banks then proceeded to nearly become the hero in the 2014 Grey Cup, as he returned a punt 90 yards for a score with 35 seconds left to put the Tiger-Cats ahead, only to see it negated by an illegal blocking penalty.
"That was probably one of my craziest memories out in Canada, almost winning a Grey Cup from a punt return and then it getting called back," he said. "Other than that, just being out here over the years, enjoying myself and having the opportunity to play football, that's a great memory by itself."
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