No longer in the classroom but still very much engrained in the world of data and economics, Brandl was scrolling on his computer last month when he received an alert about the “Best story at this year’s NFL Draft in Green Bay.”
Intrigued, Brandl clicked the link to reveal a story on a Texas defensive lineman who was in attendance when the Packers drafted him in the fourth round.
“I see the picture and I’m like, ‘(Expletive)! That’s Barryn!'” said Brandl with a laugh. “‘I’ll be damned.'”
Brandl knew Sorrell, the student, well before being introduced to Sorrell, the Texas defensive lineman. In 2022, Brandl was administering an Introduction to Macroeconomics course with more than 400 students between two sections.
Known as a caring but old-school professor, Brandl and his classes had a reputation for difficulty and the first round of exams lived up to that billing. He maintained an open-door policy, though, to anyone who needed help with the material.
After the first exam of the semester, Sorrell emailed him asking for help on the course material after not performing as well as hoped.
“When people don’t do well in the class, they usually wait till the end of the semester and are like, ‘Is there anything I can do to improve my grade”‘ and the answer is no,” said Brandl with a laugh. “He reached out right after the first exam.”
There was a catch. Sorrell had a busy schedule and couldn’t make it to Brandl’s office hours or study groups. A former bank teller during his time at UW-Madison, Brandl understood and arranged to meet with the student on a weekly basis over Zoom.
This is how Sorrell learned the nuances of macroeconomics, meeting with Brandl usually 45 minutes to an hour once a week.
Sorrell never pulled the athlete card with Brandl. In fact, it wasn’t until well into their discussions it came up that Sorrell even played for the Texas football team. He never talked about the NFL or getting drafted, only mentioning his desire to help his community back in Louisiana.
Brandl didn’t know much about Longhorn football, but he had a way of connecting with students. One of Brandl’s preferred teaching tools was equating his love of economics to a student’s favorite hobbies or interests.
Before diving into the subject matter, Brandl talked with Sorrell about what he enjoyed outside of football or school. Sorrell started to talk freely about music until Brandl interjected.
“You see what we just did? We talked about music. Did you memorize that stuff about music? No. Ahh, but you know you can talk about it, right?” Brandl told him. “I want you to be able to do the same thing about economics and be able to talk your way through it. … Get to the point where you can talk about it, and you could see the light bulb going off.”
Sorrell worked his tail off at it, too. He was a fixture in the classroom and turned in every piece of assigned homework on time. Gradually, Sorrell’s grades improved.
After Sorrell was drafted, Brandl praised Sorrell’s work ethic and diligence in a Facebook post while also sending his former student an email.
“I said I don’t know if you remember me mentioning this in lecture but I’m a lifelong Packer fan,” Brandl said. “Hell of a nice kid and he responded back ‘Oh yeah, thank you so much for all that you did.’ I’m like ‘Dude, I didn’t do anything. It’s all your hard work. I just taught econ. Hell, that’s my hobby in addition to my job.'”