David Fluellen couldn’t run away from the comparisons. So he pushed himself to keep up with them.

When Fluellen joined the Lockport High School varsity football team as a freshman in 2006, he was expected to follow in the fleet footsteps of older brother Jhamal, who’d become the Lions’ all-time leading rusher three years earlier and earned a scholarship to play cornerback at Syracuse University.

David, however, had the self awareness to see he wasn’t blessed with as much pure speed and agility as Jhamal.

“That was Dave’s driving point. He always wanted to be like his brother and become a Division I player,” said his father, David Fluellen Sr. “Where everything came natural to Jhamal, Dave had to work harder for it.”

Fluellen found his way to John Opfer’s Proformance Sports Training facility at the Amherst Pepsi Center, and dedicated himself to year-round workouts.

“The honest truth is David has talent,” said Opfer, a former University at Buffalo football player who specializes in speed training. “He didn’t come here with no opportunity to play at the next level. But was he a Division I kid when he came here? Probably not.”

Fluellen is a “Division I kid” now, having signed a letter of intent Wednesday to play at the University of Toledo.

“David is an explosive runner with outstanding vision,” Toledo coach Tim Beckman said. “He’s very physical and also catches the ball very well out of the backfield. He fits the mold perfectly for what we are looking for in the running back position.”

Fluellen’s first scholarship offer came from UB, but while the Bulls also recruited a touted tailback out of Florida, James Potts, the Rockets made it clear Fluellen was their top prospect at the position.

At 6-foot, 200 pounds, Fluellen is a bigger back than his brother, who after being diagnosed with a heart condition while at Syracuse wound up playing running back at the University of Maine. The younger Fluellen is better suited for blocking and catching passes out of the backfield, said Scott Miranto, a North Tonawanda native who played safety at St. John Fisher College and spent the summer working with Fluellen at Proformance.

“Dave’s a complete running back, and that completeness has allowed him to get to the next level,” said Miranto, who after helping to build Fluellen’s speed over the summer had to find ways to slow him down in the fall while coaching at North Tonawanda.

As a senior, Fluellen rushed for 1,638 yards and 19 touchdowns, earning first-team Class AA all-state honors. He finished his career with 4,274 rushing yards, breaking his brother’s record.

And Fluellen is still utilizing Opfer’s pro bono training sessions to make himself a better athlete. He’s gotten his 40-yard dash time under 4.6 seconds and has squatted 425 pounds for six reps.

“He loves squat day,” Miranto said. “You don’t see that too much with young high school athletes.”

“He’s a guy that wants to be phenomenal,” Opfer said.

“Each year, you’ve seen a growth spurt in every aspect, the physical, the mental and the emotional,” David Fluellen Sr. said. “I’m very proud of him.”

Contact reporter Jonah Bronstein at 282-2311, ext. 2258.