By Sam Chu Lin, Dec 02, 2005
As the USC Trojans get one step closer each week to winning another national college football championship, defensive backs Brandon and Ryan Ting quietly echo their head football coach Pete Carroll and say, “We’re just taking one game at a time.”
The identical twins are juniors at USC and are from Woodside, Calif. Brandon wears a 38 jersey and his twin brother Ryan, number 39. Their football philosophy has paid off for the both of them, like in last month’s 50-42 win over the Fresno State Bulldogs.
USC was behind at halftime 21-13, safety Ryan Ting remembers, and cites a critical play in the third quarter.
“The [opposing] quarterback threw the ball,” he recounted. “I knew I had to knock it down or intercept it. I did the sure thing” batting the ball away and stopping a Fresno State drive.
Brandon had a pivotal moment of his own when he made his first collegiate interception and moments later, USC tailback Reggie Bush ran for a 45-yard touchdown.
“At first I tried to break up the pass and hit the receiver,” Brandon stated. “The ball was overthrown, and I dove for it. Fortunately I was able to come up with the play and make the interception. One of the equipment managers put it away for me. I’m sure somewhere down the line, it’ll be a good memory.”
“It was a close game, kind of scary at times,” Brandon shared his feelings. “It was emotionally draining.”
As the season has moved along, the Ting twins have received more national publicity.
During the recent Cal/USC game at Berkeley, Ryan intercepted a pass and prevented Cal from making a touchdown. His brother Brandon made two critical tackles that helped USC to beat the Cal Bears 35-10, and helped to wipe away the sting of the Trojan’s last defeat in September 23, 2003.
The twins brush aside questions about another possible national championship saying they simply want to remain focused on what they’re doing.
“We’re trying to maximize every opportunity that we have, and that’s at practice where we get better and improve on whatever it takes,” Ryan commented.
At 5:00 in the evening at one of USC’s practice fields, that discipline is very visible. Brandon and Ryan are running through hoops, back peddling, and challenging one another.
“We’ve got to keep our minds in the right place,” Brandon added. “Keep working hard, studying whether it’s on the field or off the field, and everything will come into place.”
The two credit their dad and their older brother for inspiring them. Their father is well-known Bay Area orthopedic sports surgeon Dr. Arthur Ting, whose patients have included Barry Bonds, Joe Montana and Yao Ming. Their older brother Richard is a former Yale quarterback, now in law school.
Marilyn Koyama Ting, their mother, is probably their biggest cheerleader. She was the official videographer at many of their childhood sports events. The former child psychology major met her husband at USC, and a trend was set in motion on their first date when they went to the Rose Bowl.
The Tings drive or fly to every USC football game to see their twins play. Following the USC/Fresno State game, the couple stayed overnight at a Marriott hotel. The next day they brought lunch to their sons’ apartment, and because the game had been so exciting, they watched a videotape of it again.
The boys started playing Pop Warner football when they were eight years old. Both Ryan and Brandon have earned black belts in karate. They traveled across the Dumbarton Bridge and San Francisco Bay daily to attend James Logan High School in Union City to be in a more competitive atmosphere. They were permitted to do this because their father was the school district’s physician. Both Brandon and Ryan also excelled in baseball, basketball, and track and field.
They left their high school early to go to USC.
“We wanted to enhance our athletic ability by coming in early, learning the system early,” Brandon stated. By coming to USC early, the twins were able to participate in spring practice.
“Coach Carroll let us go back to Logan to participate in our graduation ceremony and all of the festivities,” Ryan added. “That was really nice of him to do that.”
Brandon and Ryan Ting are not only good athletes; they are maintaining 3.9 and 3.8 grade point averages, respectively. They were recruited by many Ivy League schools, Cal and Stanford, but they chose SoCal. They liked Carroll’s promise: “If you’re good enough, you can start playing immediately.”
“They are very smart,” Todd McNair, special teams coach, commented, “They can play a multitude of positions. I don’t think we would hesitate at all to put them in different spots. They pick it up, and know what to do.”
“They’ve got Great Spirit,” line coach Pat Ruel commented as he wrapped his arms around the two young men in a father-like hug. “They have great talent, and they’ll hit you!”
Ryan made his first college interception in a USC game against Arizona. That accomplishment was headlined with a picture in one of the school’s newspapers. One of Ryan’s colleagues tipped the ball up in the air, and Ting made the grab.
“I was just excited to be a part of that,” Ryan modestly noted. With a smile, he added, “I stopped the play –– which led to the victory.”
“We have different personalities,” Brandon added, “but we’re very supportive of each other. We encourage each other to do better.”
Asked why they enjoy sports, the two smiled, “It helps to relieve the tensions after we’ve been studying.”
The two American studies majors are already discussing graduate school, perhaps following their older brother and studying law, or becoming orthopedic surgeons like their father.
“We’re thinking about that, but we haven’t made any decisions yet,” they said.
With the UCLA game on tap December 3, wrapping up the regular season for both universities, the Ting twins say before and after the Thanksgiving holiday, they will be focused on practice.
“UCLA has had several weeks off to prepare,” they noted. “We’ve got to be ready. We’re just taking one game at a time.”
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Ryan Ting
Birthdate: 03/26/1984
Honors: He won USC’s 2004 Howard Jones/Football Alumni Club Academic Award. In high school, he made the 2002 Prep Star All-American, Super Prep All-Farwest, Prep Star All-West, Tom Lemming All-West, Tacoma News Tribune Western 100, Cal-Hi Sports All-State honorable mention and San Francisco Chronicle All-Metro honorable mention squads as a senior wide receiver and defensive back at James Logan High in Union City, Calif.
Personal: He’s an American studies and ethnicity major at USC with an A- average (team-best 3.90 GPA). He made the 2004 Pac-10 All-Academic second team. He earned a black belt in karate.
On being confused with his twin brother, Brandon: “I’ve been called Brandon as many times in my life as I’ve been called my real name. If we’re walking through campus and someone yells out, ‘Brandon,’ we’ll both turn our heads. It’s weird.”
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Brandon Ting
Birthdate: 03/26/1984
Honors: He made the 2002 Prep Star All-American, Super Prep All-Farwest, Prep Star All-West, Tom Lemming All-West, Tacoma News Tribune Western 100, Cal-Hi Sports All-State honorable mention and San Francisco Chronicle All-Metro honorable mention squads as a senior quarterback and defensive back at James Logan High in Union City, Calif.
Personal: He’s an American studies and ethnicity major at USC with an A- average (3.76 GPA). He made the 2004 Pac-10 All-Academic second team. He earned a black belt in karate.
On his and his brother’s strong work ethic: “Our work ethic came from watching those athletes who our dad operated on work hard every day to get healthy.”
On the difference between the twins: “Once you get to know us, our personalities are different. I’m more organized and he’s a little more scatterbrained.”
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“I’m not only proud of [my sons] not only as athletes and students, I’m proud of them as individuals. The part of them being athletes and students is also part of them too. It’s not just them being athletes. I’m proud of them for the kind of people that they are and that they represent the Asian culture perhaps in a good positive way.”
– Marilyn Koyama Ting on being proud of her son
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“We all are a mixed pot of all of these cultures and racial backgrounds and different philosophies. … I think it’s constructive to understand the negative sides and constructive again to move on and look beyond that. It’s hard to buy sometimes, but I think it’s not productive if you bite on something and then you turn it into a negative thing because it only hurts you.”
– Marilyn Koyama Ting on advice on racial prejudic
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“Athletes come from different walks of life and ethnic groups, like the world that we live in. Our sons have learned to communicate with them. They feel comfortable in talking with those who are from the inner city to those from Bel-Air. That kind of experience should help them later on in their future careers.”
– Dr. Arthur Ting on athletics countering stereotypeses
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