If there was ever a player destined for a breakout season, knowing the bloodline of the family in recent years, it was Heritage senior Kwauze Garland, who over the past two years has watched two older brothers move on to play college football at a high level.
Having grown up in the shadows of Wallace Cowins, a 2017 Heritage graduate who finished with the most tackles in Class AAAAAA (178), followed by Kurott Garland, a 2018 graduate who finished with the classification’s fifth-most sacks (12.5) and most tackles for a loss with 43, younger brother Kwuaze was destined to set his own mark in his senior season.
The 6-foot-2, 190-pound hybrid linebacker/safety said after watching his two older brothers move on to play college football, it only fueled him to make sure he got his own shake of the tree by the time graduation 2019 rolled around.
“It motivated me every day,” Garland said. “Ever since the day (Kurott) got offered by Tennessee, I’ve just been working my butt off. Every day at practice, every day after practice. They are my role models because I want to be where they’re at. My parents are proud of them and I want to make my parents proud, too. That really motivates me to shoot for the stars.”
Asked to step into a bigger role as a senior, Garland helped anchor a Patriots defense that allowed 22 or fewer points in six of their 10 games, including a 17-0 shutout against Alcovy, a 12-point performance against Grovetown and a 10-point performance against Lakeside.
In all, Garland totaled 132 tackles, tops on the team and in the area, landing him a spot on the Region 3-AAAAAA first team and the Citizen’s Defensive Player of the Year honors.
Garland was one of only two players in Class AAAAAA to record 100 or more tackles while also recording at least 18 tackles for a loss and was only one of two non-defensive lineman to record that number of TFLs, too.
Garland recorded 10 or more tackles in nine of his 10 games with a season-high 19 coming in an overtime loss at South Gwinnett in late September. He also recorded two sacks, intercepted two passes, caused one fumble and defended three passes in his breakout senior season.
After playing a similar role last season as a strong safety/linebacker, Garland said he saw a vast improvement in his ability to diagnose plays, as well as being as versatile as possible.
“My coaches moved me around the field a lot to shore up the defense and I think that helped me out a lot,” Garland said. “They moved me around last year, too, but not as much. I played a little strong safety last year and then I started to get a feel for it and liked it. I wanted to move down to the box, just outside of it. Since I was one of the biggest on the team, and I could read well, they moved me to the middle.”
what’s funny is his Junior year he played one position. His Senior year he played multiple and he still did better than his Junior year. Guy was so wrong on more than one aspect.
