LZ's Brinlee would prefer to keep working on his skills

Getting out of practice to talk to a reporter who wants to do a feature story on you is probably a win/win for most high school athletes.

But Lake Zurich running back Jacob Brinlee looked a bit concerned when his coach encouraged him to take a break from a team workout earlier this week so that he could chat with me on a bench along the sidelines.

Courteous and accommodating, Brinlee was ultimately a very good sport. He graciously hung out with me, according to the timer on my recorder, for 16 minutes.

Of course, it was probably 16 minutes too many for his tastes.

I found out from talking to Brinlee that even though he's been one of the best running backs in Lake County this season, he's nowhere near satisfied with his performance. In fact, he kept saying over and over again that he could be doing a lot better.

"I definitely need to be staying on my feet longer, I need to be breaking more tackles," the speedy and explosive Brinlee said very matter-of-factly. "There's a lot I need to work on."

Later, after Brinlee returned to practice, I joked with head coach Bryan Stortz that Brinlee might have been annoyed that he was sent over to do an interview during practice because it took away from his time to do all that "improving" he needs to do.

"You know, that's just how Jacob Brinlee is," Stortz replied with a wide smile. "No matter how well he's doing, he is always concerned about getting better, about doing more."

Perhaps not in his mind, but certainly on paper, Brinlee has done plenty this season for Lake Zurich, which stands as the one and only Lake County team remaining in the state football playoffs.

Thanks in large part to Brinlee, who has rolled up 1,467 yards and 22 touchdowns this season, the Bears will take on Wheaton North in a Class 7A quarterfinal on Saturday (7 p.m.) in Wheaton.

It's the third time in four years that Lake Zurich has advanced to the quarterfinals. In 2006 and 2007, the Bears made it all the way to the state championship game in Champaign, winning the 7A title in 2007.

"I'm real excited that we're winning games now and playing well," Brinlee said. "When we were 2-3 earlier this year, our backs were against the wall and that really made us focus and work harder."

Brinlee is no stranger to hard work himself.

In his insatiable quest for improvement, Brinlee works all the angles, from doing research to putting in the sweat equity.

One of his sweatiest ventures involves a hill, some weight and running.

"We have this big hill in my backyard. It's probably 40 yards long," Brinlee said. "A couple of the players on the team will come over to my house and we'll do a circuit, then we'll pull a sled up the hill. We put like 90 pounds on it."

Running hills is something that Brinlee's idol was known for doing.

Brinlee is a huge Walter Payton fan, even though he was only 6 years old when Payton died of bile duct cancer in 1999.

When Brinlee started developing into a standout running back, a co-worker of his mother's turned over his collection of Chicago Bears videos, complete with various highlight reels of Payton.

Brinlee has watched them often ever since.

"That guy in my mom's office is a friend and he thought I would really like those tapes and I do," Brinlee said. "I watch them a lot during the season to get tips and everything.

"One thing Walter Payton did a lot is that when people (defenders) were in an angle of pursuit, he would slow down and they would change their angle and he would speed up to throw them off. That's what I try to do now, too.

"In the videos, they also talk about how Walter Payton ran with a fury that no one else ran with. He just wanted every last yard and ran extremely hard. I try to keep that in mind when I'm playing."

In the back of his mind, Brinlee is also keeping in mind college. He says that he dreams about playing at the next level two years from now.

"I try not to think about it that much and coach (Stortz) hasn't really talked to me about it yet, just because we're in season right now," Brinlee said. "But it's definitely one of my goals to play in college."

With a 3.6 grade point average and high honor role status, Brinlee, who aspires to be a mechanical engineer, certainly has good enough academic numbers to be college material. And his numbers on the field are obviously top-notch as well.

The one number that might be a question mark with college recruiters is a number Brinlee is unlikely to change.

"Jacob is 5-foot-10, 170 pounds and some people at the next level are going to wonder about his size," Stortz said. "I just hope they see that he has all the tools. His game speed is really great. He can catch a football, make a cut and get back to full speed very quickly. He has natural gifts like that and you can't teach some of those things.

"If people are willing to take a bit of a chance on Jacob, they'll be very happy with the result."

Much happier than Brinlee ever is about missing practice, that's for sure.

pbabcock@dailyherald.com