Colby Brewer spent his first decade after high school traveling the world with a Navy bomb squad. But approaching his 30s, Brewer was searching for a second act.

What about college football?

At 6-foot-4 and 233 pounds, Brewer would watch football every now and then and come away with the same thoughts.

“I was kind of realizing my size (compared) to watching guys on TV,” he said. “And I was like, ‘Dang, I’m the same size if not a little bigger than some of these guys.’”

Brewer hadn’t played a down of organized football in his life — but he was an athlete, and he wanted to give it a go.

Fast-forward a year, and Brewer’s military past met his college football present at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego.

There was Brewer, wearing a New Mexico football jersey and holding the American flag, ready to lead his team onto the field against San Diego State.

“Like, this is reality. The culmination of a lot of different life events, over a lot more years, than the usual college football player,” Brewer said, thinking back to that moment before the SDSU game, which the Lobos would ultimately win, 21-16, on Veterans Day weekend.

The past: Brewer is a former explosive ordnance technician (EOD), a highly specialized and skilled branch of Navy Special Operations. He likens the job to that of a “traveling bomb squad” focused on identifying, clearing and detonating explosives on land or sea. He’d deployed to the Middle East three times in eight years, spending time in Lebanon, Bahrain and Kuwait.

The present: At 29, Brewer is a scout team edge rusher for UNM and is perhaps the oldest player in Division I college football. He’s yet to see the field in a game, but he makes a difference during practice and off the field, and has become a mentor to teammates — some of them more than 10 years younger.

It is an unusual arrangement. Brewer admits there were some friends and family who quietly doubted it could be done.

“If not said it straight up to my face,” he added.

But it is, in fact, happening.

“The dude is doing something that’s not only uncommon at New Mexico, but in the whole entirety of college athletics,” said Ben Hogg, one of Brewer’s near-lifelong best friends and also an intern on UNM strength and performance staff.

Special forces at play

A Lynchburg, Virginia, native, Brewer was an all-district soccer player at nearby Brookville High School. But he was determined to enter the military special forces after his 2013 graduation, enticed by what he saw in movies and what he heard from a twin-pin, the name given to the ultra-select few to have completed both Navy SEALs and EOD training.

“The tight knit, the brotherhood, it sounded like something I really wanted to be a part of,” Brewer said.

He shipped out for boot camp at Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, Illinois. For all the work he’d done to prepare that summer — lifting, running, swimming, breath holding— every day of military training brought something new.

“Where you’re like, ‘this is something I have never done,’” he said. “And you’re not necessarily prepared. But if you just live in the moment, and live to see another day almost, you can’t think too much about the future.”

Upon graduation, Brewer was stationed in San Diego. His first deployment would be a six-and-a-half month stint headquartered out of Bahrain. Two more deployments followed.

But then Brewer started to feel the “pigeon hole” of his career.

“Like it would be harder to sustain a family and stuff like that,” he said. “Seeing a lot of my friends not being successful in other areas of their life — they’re great at work but other areas are suffering because of it.”

Around the same time, Brewer was joined in San Diego by his old friend Hogg, who had aims of starting a career in military special operations himself.

Brewer was more than game to help his friend and thought Hogg — a former wide receiver at Virginia — could help him learn whether his fascination with college football was worth pursuing.

“It was almost like, in sync,” Hogg remembers. “Because I was like, ‘man, I need to train in the water and do a bunch of things to prep for this program.’ And he’s like, ‘well, I’m thinking about playing college football.’

“I was like, ‘well, we can make something work.’”

The routine: Brewer and Hogg would go to the pool for the latter’s conditioning and training. Then they’d go to a nearby field, where Brewer would run routes, drills, anything he could to try to get a feel for the game. That continued for four days a week over two months, a trial run for both parties.

“At the end of it, I was like, ‘any thoughts?’” Brewer said. “And he’s like, ‘you’ve got a serious shot.’”

Next steps

The big question was where Brewer would get that shot. He didn’t have any high school film to show coaches, and “if you did, it would be 10 years ago, no one would look at it,” he added. He put together a quick reel of him running routes, completing drills and lifting weights and got responses from eight of the 60 schools he reached out to.

Of the eight, there really weren’t any preferred walk-on opportunities. Clemson, North Carolina, Penn State and Georgia Tech were among the schools he was “serious” about walking on to, but even then, there were no guarantees.

Hogg eventually pulled the plug on his special operations training due to health concerns and in January landed a role on UNM’s staff as a strength and performance intern, under newly hired Bronco Mendenhall, his former coach at Virginia.

Brewer was freshly separated from the Navy at that point.

Hogg said his friend was an “easy vouch” to a rebuilding UNM football program.

On May 28, Brewer got the call. He picked up the phone to hear UNM director of scouting Evan Butts on the other end: Be here on Monday and UNM would have a walk-on spot for him.

Then living in State College, Pennsylvania, Brewer started to pack his four-door sedan and realized he couldn’t fit everything. So he traded in the sedan and bought a truck. Everything fit.

“There wasn’t a doubt in my mind when I was driving out if I was ever going to regret something or anything like that,” he said. “Obviously there’s some things that were not ideal in the situation. But if I had to do it all over again, I’d do the same thing.”

Learning and leading

These days, Brewer is a scout team edge rusher for UNM football. On the scout team, Brewer runs the plays from the coming week’s opposing team, allowing the starters to practice against those formations. He’s learning the game at his own pace without worrying about being a “key component” of the defense.

Putting on the pads in and of itself means something, too.

“You feel like a kid again,” Brewer said. “The age of 29 does not exist when I put those pads and helmet on.”

Though he isn’t playing a major role for UNM on the field, he is off of it.

Edges coach Jan Jorgensen lauded him for mentoring younger players, even inviting Indiana State transfer edge rusher Antoineo Harris Jr. to live with him.

“I think he’s had a really good influence on him,” Jorgensen said. “Just AJ being around someone like that who’s professional, who’s done what he’s done, who’s disciplined. I mean, AJ has become a really good player over the last five or six games.

“And I’m sure part of that is how Colby has worn off on him.”

Harris remembers thinking Brewer was “a coach or recruiter” upon arrival. And that he never looked tired during Mendenhall’s grueling offseason workouts. After recovering from injuries suffered earlier this season, he said his mentality has changed — with Brewer’s guidance.

“He’s done life-or-death situations,” Harris said. “He’s talked to me, helped me out a lot, and (made) me mentally stronger with all the obstacles I’ve faced.”

To Mendenhall, Brewer’s “maybe” the best leader he’s ever had in any program he’s coached.

It was never a question Brewer would carry the flag out at San Diego State.

“Even though Colby’s role on the field isn’t significant, his influence on our program is significant ... I think it was the right thing to do, and it was a pretty special moment.”

Brewer agrees. It’s hard to put into words what that feeling was like, a recognition of his unique past.

For now, he’s happy with the present.

“It’s been an honor,” Brewer said, “to be here.”

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