Temple University Athletics
Photo by: Joseph V. Labolito/Temple University
Friends Forever
10.9.13 | Football
Kyle and Travis Friend Are More than Just Brothers
by Kevin Rossi
We all need a mentor, someone to pave the path that we will one day lead. We all have someone that we look up to for direction, for guidance, for leadership. A mentor can be a family member, a friend, a teacher, a coach, anybody, really.
For Temple's starting center Kyle Friend, that mentor is his brother, Travis.
Travis Friend is a 6-foot-2, 242-pound fullback for the Bucknell Bison from Mechanicsburg, Pa. A senior on the team, Friend is also a team captain having been a starter since his freshman season. He is a good athlete for his size, being used mostly as a lead blocker and a receiver out of the backfield.
Last season, he won First Team All-Patriot League honors after winning Second Team All-Patriot League honors as a freshman and again as a sophomore. Earning all-conference honors three years in a row made Friend the first Bison player to do so since 2001.
What Friend really brings to Bucknell is leadership. Sure, he has collected his share of individual accolades for his play on the field. But what Friend really cherishes are two team awards that he won last season: the Bucknell Football Leadership Award and the Tom Gadd Coach's Award.
Friend's goal for his senior season is simple. He wants to take his leadership a step further and translate it into victories for his team. Last season, the Bison were 3-8, a disappointment in Friend's eyes. This season, though, things are looking up, and he wants to finish his career out on top.
"I want to go out as champions of the Patriot League," Friend said. "It has kind of been a tough pill to swallow with the kind of seasons that we've had. We returned a really good team this year."
He took a pause and thought about it a second longer. He pondered and looked deep inside himself. He has been playing organized football since his Pop Warner days, and this final season, these final 11 games, could very well be the last time that he ever puts on the pads and helmet.
"Yea, I definitely just want to win the Patriot League this year," he said, reassuringly.
Finishing out his career on top is exactly how Travis wants Kyle to finish his career. That is the path that he wants to leave for his younger brother. It is the path that he has to leave.
You would be hard-pressed to find two brothers closer than Kyle and Travis Friend. Travis is two years old than Kyle and the two are separated by the 150-plus miles that are between the campuses of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa. and Temple University, but none of that matters to them.
"We're best friends. There's no one in the world that I'd rather turn to," Travis said. "Even though he's younger, I still consider him a role model. I look up to him and he looks up to me. We do everything together. We workout when we're back home together, we hang out. As far as our relationship goes, we're best friends and no one can come between us. "
Kyle expressed a mutual feeling towards his brother.
"He's my best friend. I wouldn't be where I'm at today without him," he said. "Just because he is two years older than me, he did a lot of things and showed me a lot of things early, just so that I wouldn't have to go through it."
The two are always talking to each other. Even in different parts of Pennsylvania, they never let the distance get between their relationship.
"We talk pretty much daily," Travis said. "We talk pretty much before every game. We're calling and talking about random things about the team or what we think the chances are of winning."
There is one thing, though, that Kyle has been able to pick up from his brother: leadership. As only a sophomore for the Owls, he was named a team captain.
"He has taught me a lot about leadership," he said. "There's definitely the right way to be a captain and the wrong way, and just by mimicking him I've been able to become a good leader because he's someone that I mirror myself after."
Kyle, however, is not one of those guys that you see getting in the faces of his teammates or preaching in the locker room. He does admit, though, that if he see a teammate that needs that kind of in-your-face guidance, he's not afraid to be the one to give it.
"I would like to consider myself a lead by example guy, but I can also be vocal when I need to be. Not like one of those rah-rah kind of guys, but I think the combination of both is a good balance," he said.
It is the same kind of leadership style that his brother embodies. Kyle said that he tries to mirror himself after Travis, leadership is certainly one of those things. Travis recognizes this and tries to pave the best path that he can for his brother.
"When it comes to my younger brother, I try to lead the right way, and I try to let my actions speak louder than my words," Travis said. "Sometimes I can be vocal when I have to be, and Kyle has seen that."
Kyle also credits his brother with teaching him how to be tough. His toughness, in fact, is what Head Coach Matt Rhule has the highest praise for.
"I'm just disappointed that the O-line cannot wear numbers 1-9, or Kyle Friend would wear No. 1," said Rhule earlier in the year about the team's policy to give single-digit jerseys to the nine toughest players on the squad. "You won't ?nd anyone tougher. He deserves it."
That toughness has not gone unnoticed by the other coaches either. First year offensive line coach Allen Mogridge knows that he has a special player in Kyle.
"He's a hardhat and a lunch pail kind of guy. He's a blue collar dude," said Mogridge. "He brings a toughness to him, and I think he's learning to understand the big picture stuff. That's a great quality to have in a young person, to be able to understand the big picture."
As a captain, Kyle has done anything but disappoint the coaches as well. He has been such a strong leader as only a sophomore, a quality that has impressed the coaching staff and a quality that he certainly learned from his brother.
"All of the captains that I've ever been around their walk is pure and their walk is true," Mogridge said. "They're not saying one thing and doing another. That's not what captains do in my mind. That's the message to Kyle. He's doing what he's supposed to do."
Mogridge was not shy in his comparisons either. A graduate of the University of North Carolina in 1999, Mogridge played multiple positions for the Tar Heels' football team. One of his teammates was 6-time Pro-Bowler and Super Bowl champion center Jeff Saturday, who spent 14 seasons in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts and the Green Bay Packers.
"When I played ball a million years ago, there were some guys in the program where I played at, guys like Jeff Saturday, who were obviously outspoken leaders at a young age," Mogridge said. "If you have those qualities and those characteristics, what happens is no matter what age you are, your colleagues, your coaches, your teammates all tend to recognize it. For a young guy you're kind of holding back a bit, but what we need to get him to do is embrace it. Everybody in the program recognizes it, and now he has to just continue to push and strive."
For as proud as the coaches are with Kyle's hard work and toughness and leadership, they are even more excited that they have him for the rest of the year and two more to come. Kyle is in his second year as a starter lining up for nine games as a freshman a year ago.
Mogridge said of Kyle, "He's still got a million years of growing to do and what's exciting for me is the opportunity to work with him going forward and help him become what he can be. What does he want to be? I know he has very high goals and lofty expectations that he holds for himself."
It is clear that Kyle's future at Temple is bright. The Owls are a young football team with a young coach, and they are on the rise in the American Athletic Conference. Reinvigorated with youth and a new coaching staff, things are looking up on North Broad Street. Friend, for one, is excited about the program's direction.
"I think we're doing a lot of good things here," Kyle said. "I like Coach Rhule, I like all of the assistant coaches. I think we're really excited about this program and where it's going to go."
Although his life after Temple is more than two years away and seems so far off, the long-term future looks just as bright. What the future will look like exactly is anybody's guess, but Coach Mogridge knows that Kyle's future will look like whatever Kyle wants his future to be.
"If he keeps his nose on the grindstone, he'll be whatever he wants to be," Mogridge said.
When Kyle Friend looks back on his life two years, five years, ten years' time, if all things go as the people around him say they will go, he will see years of great success. And you can be sure that when he looks back at his successes, he will thank his mentor, his best friend, his brother, Travis.
We all need a mentor, someone to pave the path that we will one day lead. We all have someone that we look up to for direction, for guidance, for leadership. A mentor can be a family member, a friend, a teacher, a coach, anybody, really.
For Temple's starting center Kyle Friend, that mentor is his brother, Travis.
Travis Friend is a 6-foot-2, 242-pound fullback for the Bucknell Bison from Mechanicsburg, Pa. A senior on the team, Friend is also a team captain having been a starter since his freshman season. He is a good athlete for his size, being used mostly as a lead blocker and a receiver out of the backfield.
Last season, he won First Team All-Patriot League honors after winning Second Team All-Patriot League honors as a freshman and again as a sophomore. Earning all-conference honors three years in a row made Friend the first Bison player to do so since 2001.
What Friend really brings to Bucknell is leadership. Sure, he has collected his share of individual accolades for his play on the field. But what Friend really cherishes are two team awards that he won last season: the Bucknell Football Leadership Award and the Tom Gadd Coach's Award.
Friend's goal for his senior season is simple. He wants to take his leadership a step further and translate it into victories for his team. Last season, the Bison were 3-8, a disappointment in Friend's eyes. This season, though, things are looking up, and he wants to finish his career out on top.
"I want to go out as champions of the Patriot League," Friend said. "It has kind of been a tough pill to swallow with the kind of seasons that we've had. We returned a really good team this year."
He took a pause and thought about it a second longer. He pondered and looked deep inside himself. He has been playing organized football since his Pop Warner days, and this final season, these final 11 games, could very well be the last time that he ever puts on the pads and helmet.
"Yea, I definitely just want to win the Patriot League this year," he said, reassuringly.
Finishing out his career on top is exactly how Travis wants Kyle to finish his career. That is the path that he wants to leave for his younger brother. It is the path that he has to leave.
You would be hard-pressed to find two brothers closer than Kyle and Travis Friend. Travis is two years old than Kyle and the two are separated by the 150-plus miles that are between the campuses of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa. and Temple University, but none of that matters to them.
"We're best friends. There's no one in the world that I'd rather turn to," Travis said. "Even though he's younger, I still consider him a role model. I look up to him and he looks up to me. We do everything together. We workout when we're back home together, we hang out. As far as our relationship goes, we're best friends and no one can come between us. "
Kyle expressed a mutual feeling towards his brother.
"He's my best friend. I wouldn't be where I'm at today without him," he said. "Just because he is two years older than me, he did a lot of things and showed me a lot of things early, just so that I wouldn't have to go through it."
The two are always talking to each other. Even in different parts of Pennsylvania, they never let the distance get between their relationship.
"We talk pretty much daily," Travis said. "We talk pretty much before every game. We're calling and talking about random things about the team or what we think the chances are of winning."
There is one thing, though, that Kyle has been able to pick up from his brother: leadership. As only a sophomore for the Owls, he was named a team captain.
"He has taught me a lot about leadership," he said. "There's definitely the right way to be a captain and the wrong way, and just by mimicking him I've been able to become a good leader because he's someone that I mirror myself after."
Kyle, however, is not one of those guys that you see getting in the faces of his teammates or preaching in the locker room. He does admit, though, that if he see a teammate that needs that kind of in-your-face guidance, he's not afraid to be the one to give it.
"I would like to consider myself a lead by example guy, but I can also be vocal when I need to be. Not like one of those rah-rah kind of guys, but I think the combination of both is a good balance," he said.
It is the same kind of leadership style that his brother embodies. Kyle said that he tries to mirror himself after Travis, leadership is certainly one of those things. Travis recognizes this and tries to pave the best path that he can for his brother.
"When it comes to my younger brother, I try to lead the right way, and I try to let my actions speak louder than my words," Travis said. "Sometimes I can be vocal when I have to be, and Kyle has seen that."
Kyle also credits his brother with teaching him how to be tough. His toughness, in fact, is what Head Coach Matt Rhule has the highest praise for.
"I'm just disappointed that the O-line cannot wear numbers 1-9, or Kyle Friend would wear No. 1," said Rhule earlier in the year about the team's policy to give single-digit jerseys to the nine toughest players on the squad. "You won't ?nd anyone tougher. He deserves it."
That toughness has not gone unnoticed by the other coaches either. First year offensive line coach Allen Mogridge knows that he has a special player in Kyle.
"He's a hardhat and a lunch pail kind of guy. He's a blue collar dude," said Mogridge. "He brings a toughness to him, and I think he's learning to understand the big picture stuff. That's a great quality to have in a young person, to be able to understand the big picture."
As a captain, Kyle has done anything but disappoint the coaches as well. He has been such a strong leader as only a sophomore, a quality that has impressed the coaching staff and a quality that he certainly learned from his brother.
"All of the captains that I've ever been around their walk is pure and their walk is true," Mogridge said. "They're not saying one thing and doing another. That's not what captains do in my mind. That's the message to Kyle. He's doing what he's supposed to do."
Mogridge was not shy in his comparisons either. A graduate of the University of North Carolina in 1999, Mogridge played multiple positions for the Tar Heels' football team. One of his teammates was 6-time Pro-Bowler and Super Bowl champion center Jeff Saturday, who spent 14 seasons in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts and the Green Bay Packers.
"When I played ball a million years ago, there were some guys in the program where I played at, guys like Jeff Saturday, who were obviously outspoken leaders at a young age," Mogridge said. "If you have those qualities and those characteristics, what happens is no matter what age you are, your colleagues, your coaches, your teammates all tend to recognize it. For a young guy you're kind of holding back a bit, but what we need to get him to do is embrace it. Everybody in the program recognizes it, and now he has to just continue to push and strive."
For as proud as the coaches are with Kyle's hard work and toughness and leadership, they are even more excited that they have him for the rest of the year and two more to come. Kyle is in his second year as a starter lining up for nine games as a freshman a year ago.
Mogridge said of Kyle, "He's still got a million years of growing to do and what's exciting for me is the opportunity to work with him going forward and help him become what he can be. What does he want to be? I know he has very high goals and lofty expectations that he holds for himself."
It is clear that Kyle's future at Temple is bright. The Owls are a young football team with a young coach, and they are on the rise in the American Athletic Conference. Reinvigorated with youth and a new coaching staff, things are looking up on North Broad Street. Friend, for one, is excited about the program's direction.
"I think we're doing a lot of good things here," Kyle said. "I like Coach Rhule, I like all of the assistant coaches. I think we're really excited about this program and where it's going to go."
Although his life after Temple is more than two years away and seems so far off, the long-term future looks just as bright. What the future will look like exactly is anybody's guess, but Coach Mogridge knows that Kyle's future will look like whatever Kyle wants his future to be.
"If he keeps his nose on the grindstone, he'll be whatever he wants to be," Mogridge said.
When Kyle Friend looks back on his life two years, five years, ten years' time, if all things go as the people around him say they will go, he will see years of great success. And you can be sure that when he looks back at his successes, he will thank his mentor, his best friend, his brother, Travis.
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