Thing?' And it's not just a big deal, it's a serious deal. "We get to high school and suddenly they have a weightlifting team," Anthony says. And that, says Anthony, is when he and Sylvia realized what was going on. Originally pitched to him as a way to stay in shape for football, Billings started powerlifting in seventh grade and got serious about it in 10th. Yeah, well I'm stronger than you, and I'll prove it.
Andrew fell hard for its simplicity-it consists solely of the squat, the bench press and the deadlift-and took immense pride in a phrase men have been using to one-up each other for centuries: In Texas, powerlifting is not a hobby but its own sanctioned sport, with records and title rounds and state championships. Though he was a towering figure as an elementary schooler and a legitimate home-run threat each time he stepped up to the plate, Andrew puts it like this: "They took me out, so I guess I wasn't They wanted their boys to do "regular kid stuff" like play musical instruments, not get obsessed with, or feel tied to, any one activity. Andrew signed up for baseball as a default of sorts, but when Anthony and Sylvia grew weary of chauffeuring their children to and from practice on a daily basis, they pulled him out. Anthony played baseball at Paul Quinn College, a historically black school that competed at the NAIA level, but never pushed either of his boys (Anthony Jr. "They were kinda fat and jiggly andĪndrew, now 20, wasn't born into a sports-savvy family. He was born at nine pounds, 14 ounces and made an instant impression on doctors, who pointed to his legs and marveled. Glancing at his parents would not lead one to predict Billings's tremendous natural strength: His father, Anthony, is a respectable 6' 1", but Andrew dwarfs his mother, Sylvia, a petite 5' 3". He fell in love with powerlifting first, using his thick 6' 1", 305-pound frame (he is now listed at 6' 2", 310) to shatter national high school records. Outsiders may be unfamiliar with his play, but in NFL circles the 2014 first-team All-Big 12 selection is considered a better pro prospect than his well-known teammate.īillings, then a freshman at Waco High, hadn't even realized he had the talent to become a major college football player. But it's Billings, an unheralded junior nose tackle who has started since his freshman year, who can push Baylor to the top. Baylor's high-octane offense, with its FBS-leading 725 yards per game, gets most of the attention, and All-America defensive end Shawn Oakman, he of the Internet memes and cartoon-character physique, gets most the hype. The second-ranked Bears are 5–0 going into Saturday's contest with West Virginia (3–2), touted as a College Football Playoff contender and riding the wave of a power shift in the Big 12-one for which they are largely responsible. But now a dramatically different narrative is being spun in Waco, Billings's hometown, and he has something to do with it. For years, Baylor was the Big 12's punching bag. They went 4–18 under former coach Dave Roberts, 9–36 under Kevin Steele and 18–40 under Guy Morriss.
Of course he didn't grow up a Baylor fan-did anyone? During Billings's childhood the Bears were a fixture toward the bottom of the standings, winning more than four games in a season just once from 1996 to 2009. "Did I … grow up a Baylor fan?" he repeated, as the obvious answer flashed in his eyes. He tried to find a polite way to respond the question, but coming up empty, took a deep breath. WACO, Texas-Andrew Billings cocked his head to the side and pursed his lips.
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