When D. Bryant came to Duke in 1998, he was one of the few football recruits to have racked up such accolades like All-America awards from various recruiting services and newspapers throughout the country.
However, despite being a much touted recruit in one of the worst programs in college football, Bryant did not play, but instead chose to redshirt, a very common practice in college football.
In another move contrary to common logic, Bryant then lost his eligibility playing on the NCAA runner-up basketball squad that year.
Two years later, he's finally back to his original level--the undisputed starting quarterback of the Duke football team who completed 11-of-20 passes in a recent team scrimmage.
"When I came to college, I wanted to get a chance to play basketball," Bryant said. "Once I had a chance to play here, that was a once-in-a-lifetime type of thing. Coming here, I wanted to be a starting quarterback at the college level and maybe have a chance to go on to the next level and that's what probably forced me to put the basketball issues aside."
The trip to being a starting quarterback on this level has not been easy for Bryant.
After his stint with the basketball team, he was dismissed from school for undisclosed reasons and spent the 1999 season working on an assembly line in native Detroit instead of throwing football for the Blue Devils.
After that enlightening experience, Bryant returned to school and also began returning to his high-school form. While he was the star of the spring scrimmage for the Blue Devils, he didn't get a chance to start in the 2000 season until Spencer Romine and Bobby Campell had problems in the pocket.
Bryant ended up starting seven games, throwing for 1,448 yards, five touchdowns and 10 interceptions, finishing the season with a 50 percent completion percentage. After a year of valuable experience, he's ready to lead the Blue Devils again, but this time he's picked up a few more tricks of the trade.
He also found out, just like his predecessor, Romine, a fundamental rule of quarterbacking: throwing the ball in the correct place can be extremely annoying if it's not caught. Romine complained of this problem at the beginning of last season, and after an 0-11 mark, it didn't appear the team improved at all.
"It was very frustrating, putting balls where they needed to be, you know, balls hitting receivers in the chest and then dropping it," Bryant said. "I can't put my head down, because then my team will put their heads down and we can't do what we need to do on the field. This year, we've got a lot of young guys, but we've also got a lot of guys back who are that much more confident also. During the preseason right now, we're catching the ball well and everything's going real well. I hope it'll carry over into the season."
Another positive for Bryant as he enters his junior season is new quarterbacks coach Jim Pry. According to head coach Carl Franks, Bryant and others, Pry has been working wonders with the quarterback in the offseason, and if the Blue Devils newfound ability to catch the ball remains, the airborne attack from a couple years ago may be back in full swing.
Pry also has had good things to say about his starting man.
"Without question, he's absolutely got more confidence, which comes from the repetition and being in the games already," Pry said. "He's comfortable with the offense, and I think he's taken the step of plugging the offense into the defense, which he couldn't do last year because he was inexperienced and young."
However, the big issue for Bryant still remains in his quarterbacking, and throwing and catching the ball in the correct place.
"Once you watch film and Coach Franks or the quarterbacks coach says, OThat's where it needs to be,' then there's nothing you can do about that," Bryant said. "If that's where the ball needs to be, and he dropped it, then there's nothing I can do about that.
"It doesn't bother me. All I can say is OGo out and catch the next one.'"
It's that type of attitude that got Duke through the last season, and coming from their offensive leader, will only make the team and Bryant that much better.
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