Harrison Bryant played offensive tackle until his senior year of high school, when he switched to tight end. Unfortunately, that position change didn’t excite many college recruiters.
“I wasn’t very highly recruited, but Samford University – an FCS school in Alabama – they offered me as a defensive end,” Bryant recalled on The Zach Gelb Show. “Their offensive coordinator came over to FAU about two weeks before Signing Day. He called me up and said, ‘Do you want to play tight end?’”
Yes. Absolutely, definitely, yes.
“FAU ended up being my only FBS offer, so it was a pretty simple story how I ended up there,” Bryant said. “But it’s pretty cool that now I’m here – a lot of hard work and good teammates and a good coaching staff, it paid off.”
Where is “here,” you ask? “Here” is one of the top tight end prospects in this year’s draft class. The 6-5, 240-pounder caught 65 passes for 1,004 yards and seven touchdowns last season.
Getting drafted will be a dream come true for the Georgia native.
“Later on in high school, I kind of started thinking about [the NFL but I] wasn’t highly recruited, so I never really knew,” Bryant said. “But then getting into college, I was like, ‘I belong here.’ I started playing better and better and just kept improving and maturing as a player. Probably sophomore or junior year, I [realized] I could accomplish this. I always worked for that goal, but that was when it realistically hit me that this was a possibility. Now I’m sitting here hopefully having my name called Thursday or Friday.”
Bryant, who has drawn comparisons to George Kittle, thoroughly enjoyed playing for Lane Kiffin, who went 11-3 in two of this three seasons at FAU.
“It was a great environment,” Bryant said. “He’s an extremely laid-back guy. He’s a lot different than this Twitter personality wen you get to know him, but laid back. If you do what you’re supposed to do, it’s an easy ride. He’s going to do whatever he can to put you in the best position to succeed. Like most people know, he’s an offensive genius. In my three years with him, [we won] two conference championships and now he’s at Ole Miss. I think he’s going to do a great job there and turn around that program as well and start winning championships there.”