Georgia's Kublanow balances faith and football

ATHENS - It's not something that Brandon Kublanow has to think about every football season.

Only on those years when the offensive lineman has a game that happens to fall on the holiest of days for him and his family.

Like this Saturday when Georgia plays Vanderbilt at 4 p.m. in Athens.

It is Yom Kippur, a day of atonement for Jews to ask forgiveness for sins of the past year.

"My mom's been talking to me about it," Kublanow said recently. "Every year that it happens, it happened in high school, Yom Kippur would fall on the same day as a game and she'd be like, 'You're not playing.' 'Mom, come on. Let's be realistic. I'm playing.'"

So Kublanow won't fast from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday like is the Jewish custom.

"I would love to try, but realistically I'm not going to," he said. "I've got to be ready for the game. It is what it is."

The 6-foot-3, 294-pound sophomore will fuel up to be ready for his fifth game starting at left guard for a Georgia offense that ranks ninth in the nation in rushing.

Kublanow wasn't just born Jewish, he was raised and had his bar mitzvah while attending an orthodox Chabad synagogue.

His mother, Shelly Kublanow Rosenblatt, will attend Friday night and Saturday morning services at the Chabad House in Athens and then head to Sanford Stadium in the afternoon to watch Kublanow and his linemates clear the way for Todd Gurley.

"I have mixed emotions," said his mother, who was born in Israel and moved to the U.S. when she was 16. "He's going to play is the bottom line. If it was baseball and you have 100 games, I think it would be a totally different story, but you have so many games, that was part of signing up to do this thing."

Kublanow, his mother said, is carrying with him during the Jewish high holidays a "kippah" or skull cap in his bag.

"You do the best you can do," she said.

Between what his mother said is a "crazy" schedule of classes and football practices, she said her son last week went to see Rabbi Michoel Refson at Chabad in Athens during Rosh Hashanah, where they prayed together and the Rabbi

blew the shofar (ram's horn) for Kublanow.

After moving to New York, Brandon's mother settled in Atlanta, where both Brandon and his brother Joey were born. She is a relator and also has a home in Athens.

The Kublanows don't keep kosher, but his mother said she does not eat pork. She said she will break her Yom Kippur fast earlier this year than she ever has.

The most famous Jewish athlete still may be Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax, who famously decided not to pitch in game one of the 1965 World Series for the Dodgers when it fell on Yom Kippur.

"My grandma calls my mom all the time, 'Sandy Koufax,'" Brandon said.

Kublanow's grandmother, who fled Poland during World War II for Siberia and then moved to Israel, would prefer Brandon didn't play Saturday "but she'll get over it," Shelly said.

The online version of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz ran a story with the headline "Seven Jewish gridders to know about this NFL season" that included Atlanta Falcons offensive lineman Gabe Carimi, the 2010 Outland Trophy winner at Wisconsin.

Brandon was always the "biggest kid on the block," growing up, his mother said, and he picked football over tennis in about the sixth grade and went on to play at Walton High.

Its offensive line coach, John Evans, helped mold Kublanow into a player now known around the program as "Bull." Senior offensive tackle Kolton Houston got wind of Kublanow when he was being recruited.

"I always heard about this short, little ginger kid who just abused people in high school," he said of the redhead. "He's gotten here and he's just one of us. That's the best thing about our offensive line. Doesn't matter black or white, everybody in that room pretty much all have the exact same personality. We're all brothers in there."

Brandon's mother said she told coaches during the recruiting process that it was important for her that he have time to attend services during Jewish holidays.

"They're good people and Miss Shelly is a great lady and we promised her that we were going to take care of 'Bull,'" offensive line coach Will Friend said. "He's upheld his end of the bargain and he's done good and he's getting better and better. He was a good get and (has) been a good player for us."

She said she makes sure to remind Georgia staff member Dave Van Halanger of holidays coming up like Passover to remind Brandon.

"They do a lot of praying there," she said of Georgia.

Coach Mark Richt, known for his strong Christian faith, remembers having a couple of teammates who were Jewish when he played at the University of Miami.

"I know Musa (Smith) was Muslim," Richt said referring to the former Georgia and NFL running back. "We don't care about all that. We just like them to have that 'G' on their hat and play hard."

Georgia holds an optional chapel service at the team hotel before games.

"I go sometimes," Brandon Kublanow said. "I just like to see what it's like. They don't ever put any pressure on me or anything like that. Everyone knows I'm the only Jewish kid on the team."

Offensive lineman John Theus said Kublanow isn't the only non-Christian on the current team. "We still all love them the same, we still all get along," he said. "I love Brandon to death. He plays next to me and I feel like we've really grown close this year."