SEATTLE — For a college football player who joins his team as a walk-on, it seems there are few thrills greater than eventually earning a scholarship. It cements the player’s status as a valued contributor, sure, but it’s more than just validation. Walk-ons pay their own way, just like the average, non-athlete college student. That scholarship money can solve a lot of problems.
As such, college coaches have turned scholarship-reveal announcements into something of a viral trend. Some summon the player to their office under ominous circumstances, only to surprise them with happy news. Others surprise the player during a regular position meeting, or announce the scholarship in front of the whole team, which prompts a jubilant outburst and a series of back-slaps and bro-hugs.
This is typically an emotional time for the player upon whom the scholarship is bestowed. Some cry. Some cheer. Almost all are visibly excited.
And then there’s Washington Huskies sophomore Myles Bryant.
Jimmy Lake, UW’s defensive backs coach, was meeting with Bryant for his end-of-spring review, as he does with each member of the Huskies secondary. Bryant had just completed a successful freshman season, and supplemented it with a strong spring.
So UW coach Chris Petersen made a surprise appearance at the meeting, and told Bryant the good news: he had earned a scholarship.
Bryant’s response sheds some light on why UW’s coaches like him so much. “Myles was just real straight-faced, like, ‘OK.’ And that was it,” Lake said. “But that’s Myles. You don’t see any high or low. He’s just even-keel. He’s just ready to go to work.”
So even-keeled, in fact, that it wasn’t until a month later that teammate and good friend Jordan Miller found out that Bryant was no longer a walk-on.
“He was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m on scholarship now.’ I was like, ‘Bro, you can’t tell me?’ ” Miller said. “He just kept it all low-key. That’s just the type of guy he is. He’s not going to do all this hard work and put it online and on (social) media and all that. He does his hard work in private. If you really know him, you can see it.”
Lake saw it when Bryant was a junior at Loyola High School Los Angeles. He actually offered him a scholarship in the summer before his senior season, and Bryant had entertained offers from Colorado and UCLA, too. But he took too long to make his decision. UW filled its spots in the recruiting class designated for defensive backs. So did the other schools recruiting Bryant. Suddenly, he was out of options.
Or, rather, out of scholarship options. Ultimately, he decided he wanted to attend UW, whether the school was paying for it or not. His parents were fine with it. Lake, of course, was plenty fine with it. So Bryant ventured to Seattle as a walk-on.
He conceded that missing out on a scholarship offer was “disappointing,” but chalked it up to “just a humbling experience for me.” And he wasn’t particularly motivated by the idea of earning a scholarship. He was motivated by the idea of playing for the Huskies.
“Coming here, I really didn’t have the mindset, ‘Oh, I need to get this scholarship. I need to get it,’ ” Bryant said. “I just came here and wanted to play right away, and I knew if I did what I needed to do, that would just come along.”
So he did what he needed to do. At 5-foot-8 and 180 pounds, Bryant does not stand out physically next to some of UW’s more imposing defensive backs. But he made sure to stand out everywhere else.
“Hardest worker on the team, in my opinion,” Miller said. “He might not be the fastest guy, but he’s out in the front winning every conditioning drill. Everything. He’s out there lifting more than everybody, and he’s not the biggest guy, but he’s lifting all this weight, winning everything in conditioning. He’s just a hard worker in everything he does.”
Miller praised Bryant’s habits in the film room, too: “He watches more than pretty much everybody.”
“He’s got so much respect throughout this whole team,” Lake said, “and everybody knows how hard he works everywhere, from the weight room to the class room to the game field. He deserves that scholarship.”
Bryant’s work ethic helped him earn playing time as a true freshman walk-on — after he led the team in interceptions during training camp last year — and he figures to challenge for even more playing time as a sophomore. He’ll likely see the field most at nickel, he said, and he lined up there with the first-team defense some during the spring. But he can also play cornerback and wants to be able to fill in at safety, too.
“Just moving around wherever they need me,” he said.
That he’ll do it as a scholarship player means something. It just doesn’t mean everything.
“It was pretty cool, just to see your hard work get noticed and get credit for your hard work. But that wasn’t the end goal,” Bryant said. “We still have a goal ahead of us, and I have goals for myself. So I couldn’t stop there. I’ve got to keep on pushing.”
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