The first signs of something – and there was no way of knowing then – came 16 years ago.

That's when Tyler Bray was 2.

"He didn't play with toys," says his mother, Lori Bray. "It was all about a ball, any ball – basketball, football, baseball, golf ball. You name it, he played with it." Cartoons? No.

"SportsCenter," she says. "Turn on the TV and he knew exactly what channel SportsCenter was on. He was still in a diaper."

So, yes, signs. But what would they mean?

"All we knew," mom says, "something was going to happen in a sports career."

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Today, Tyler Bray, 10 days past his 18th birthday, is in Knoxville for the next phase of a football career that has taken him to the University of Tennessee in the mighty Southeastern Conference.

He's The Bee's Player of the Year after closing an 85-touchdown, 7,759-yard passing career – No. 2 all time in the Central Section – by leading Kingsburg High to a 13-0 record, Division IV championship and No. 3 state ranking in that division by Cal-Hi Sports.

No one could have projected this, not at 16, much less 2.

"I always pictured myself as probably going to the next level for basketball," says the 6-foot-6, 200-pounder. "That was always my main sport."

He was accomplished in three of them – football, basketball and baseball – when his future found a road map in a sudden and spectacular way last summer.

It was then that Bray spun heads of college coaches coast to coast with several impressive performances in summer showcase camps.

Virtually overnight, he became a hot ticket nationally, weakening considerably a non-bonding oral commitment he had made to San Diego State. By early September, he had accepted a scholarship offer from Tennessee.

On Dec. 11, he passed for five touchdowns and ran for another in a 19-of-23, 259-yard shredding of Taft as the Vikings coasted 47-16 in the D-IV title game.

And, five days later, he had already checked into Tennessee and joined the football program after completing his high school graduation requirements at the semester.

A day before he left, he stood on the all-weather track at Kingsburg Bowl, facing the retired jersey numbers of former Vikings and NFL greats Jimmie Johnson (16) and Monte Clark (44).

Maybe Bray (12) will join them.

That can wait, for he has joined the big time in the SEC, which has delivered three straight national titles and will gun for a fourth tonight behind Alabama against Texas in the Rose Bowl.

"The only thing I'm scared about," he says, "is the bookwork and school. Football is going to take its toll – it's going to be rough at times; it's going to be good at times. I've just got to take it."

He'll play games at 98,761-seat Neyland Stadium, which would swallow 6,200-seat Kingsburg Bowl.

"It will be a little bit louder, I think," Vikings coach Dave Steele says. "We had excitement, fireworks and a nice fan base, and he's played under a lot of pressure. But he's going to play under a lot more."

The coach laughs, but then turns serious, only in a comforting way when regarding the future of a quarterback who went 33-4 in green and gold.

"He's always had the physical tools, the good arm, the accuracy and the athletic ability to move in the pocket," Steele says. "But what really impressed me this year was how he became very much a student of the game and how to manage it.

"I think he's going to have a heck of a run."