Rhode Island school becoming Maryland North

Antione Hudson was feeling the pressure. National Signing Day -- the day when most Division-I caliber high school football recruits sign their National Letters of Intent for a specific college -- was fast approaching and Hudson, a senior receiver/cornerback for Bethesda (Md.) Landon couldn't make up his mind. He had two firm, written offers from Division I FCS (previously Division I-AA) schools, but in the days leading up to Feb. 2, his coach began receiving phone calls galore from college recruiters. And not just any college recruiters -- Division-I FBS recruiters.

Excited about the possibility of playing for a school like Maryland or Virginia, Hudson decided to wait. And wait. And wait. He waited so long that Signing Day passed him right by.

A week later, Hudson still hadn't signed, but on the night of Feb. 8, he decided he was through waiting for some glitzy, big-name school. Instead, he went with the program that had been there all along: Bryant University, a small, Division I FCS program in northern Rhode Island.

"I went where my heart was," Hudson said. "Bryant was the first to offer me; they were with me from the beginning and showed me the most loyalty. No other school really did as much for me as Bryant did."

With that, Antione Hudson became the 10th Maryland-area prospect from the class of 2011 to sign with the Bryant Bulldogs. Only one other college (Navy) signed half that many Marylanders last year. What's more, those 10 signees (listed at the end of this article) represented over one-third of Bryant's total recruiting class, unheard of for a program that's a six-hour car ride away from the Old Line State.

"Am I surprised? Yeah, I am," said Bryant offensive line coach and Maryland recruiting coordinator Joel Rodriguez. "But we were able to get in the right schools over the last three years. The coaches, the players and the parents know we're not some fly-by-night program."

Indeed, Bryant moved up from Division-II to D-I FCS just three years ago. But under head coach Marty Fine, who has been at the school for seven years, the Bulldogs have gone 19-14 in the Northeast Conference, including a solid 7-4 season last year.

Regardless of record, common wisdom suggests it should take a few years to ingratiate a program with a certain area, especially one that's 380 miles away. But Bryant has remarkably established a steady pipeline to some of the most talented Maryland athletes. There are currently 18 Marylanders in the school, not counting the 10 who will be on campus next year.

"We feel for us to be successful we really have to win the recruiting game in Massachusetts, New Jersey/New York and Maryland," Fine said. "Maryland fits us from a traveling standpoint, a location standpoint and an educational standpoint.

"And the players we've taken out of that area have historically been very, very good. They've come in here and made a difference in our program."

So what makes Bryant attractive to Maryland football players? Why go to a tiny, suburban school where you're a long way from home, where there are only about 3,500 undergraduates, where the winter temperatures rarely get above freezing and the tuition costs almost $50,000 a year?

The answer is multifaceted, but it comes down to a few basic factors: education, location, high-level football and, perhaps most significantly, relationships.

Bryan Egolum, a defensive tackle from Forestville (Md.) High, knows he'll probably never play in the NFL. But the chance to be in Bryant's top-rated business program and attend a university the Princeton Review ranks among the best in the country was too good to pass up.

"I mean, if you look at Bryant, they're right below the Harvards and Princetons of the world," Egolum said. "So I'm basically getting an Ivy League education at a non-Ivy school. You can't beat that."

Location is also important. Sure, six hours is a long way away, but Fine and Rodriguez both point out that a Southwest flight from BWI Airport to Providence costs just $49 and takes just 38 minutes. Moreover, the suburban campus itself is safe and quiet. But not too quiet. It's still just 10 minutes away from Providence and an hour from Boston.

And for those that do get a little homesick, there will be almost 30 other Maryland football players on campus who they can relate to.

"A buddy of mind who plays for Bryant and went to Georgetown Prep with me, Kelvin Fowler, really sold me on the place," said North Bethesda (Md.) Georgetown Prep running back Bobby Rutland. "I really enjoyed hanging with him and all the other players. Plus they've picked up nine other commitments from Maryland now. It's good that I'll be going to school with people I know."

For some Bulldogs signees, this is their big chance to play elite college football. Granted, Bryant is not the Big 10 or the SEC. Heck, it's not even the CAA (Colonial Athletic Association), one of the top conferences in FCS football. But when it comes down to it, Division I is Division I. That's a memento a player can carry with them the rest of their lives.

"It was a dream of mine to play Division-I football," said Sykesville (Md.) Century receiver Brandon Soderstrom. "I wasn't sure I'd get here, but the dream came true. All the work paid off. I'm ecstatic."

But perhaps the most oft-cited reason Maryland athletes are gravitating to Bryant is the coaches, namely Joel Rodriguez. The former Miami lineman and Tennessee Titans practice-squad member has become one of the most recognized faces in Maryland high schools. He's here so often, some players have wondered if he owns a home in the area.

"Joel is exceedingly bright, hard working and he does a great job with the kids," Fine said. "Maryland is one of our very best recruiting areas, and that's why we put him there."

Bulldogs freshman cornerback Michael Johnson, who attended Frederick (Md.) Linganore, vouches for "Coach Rod" too.

"You hear how a lot of coaches will tell you one thing when they're recruiting you, but then they are different once you actually get in the program," Johnson said. "But Coach Rodriguez is a great guy; him and the entire staff are there for you and they know what they're talking about. They're one of the main reasons I came to Bryant."

But many schools have personable, likeable coaches. Recruiters are reared in the fine art of rhetoric and salesmanship. They're as slick as car dealers and as convincing as a close friend. They'll regal these impressionable 18-year teenagers with promises of stardom and immediate playing time; they'll assure them that academic advisors will help them pass Biology 101; they'll talk about full scholarships and not having to pay a penny at a $50,000-a-year institution.

Too bad only a portion of that is half true.

"The key to this whole thing is being honest with the kids," Rodriguez said. "I'm not going to feed these kids a bunch of crap; they're hearing that from everyone else. They can see through all that."

Honesty may be the best policy, but that's only part of the reason recruits are drawn to Rodriguez. Other schools that actively recruit the Maryland area - like Navy, Monmouth, Georgetown and Bucknell - have similar standards to Bryant. But hardly any other program recruits players as early and often as the Bulldogs.

"We want to get on those kids as early as possible - before spring recruiting," Rodriguez said. "And then we stay on them."

The aforementioned Antione Hudson chose Bryant for that very reason. So did seven other Maryland signees, who had a scholarship offer from the Bulldogs before anyone else.

"They came to my house a couple of times and they were always calling me," Soderstrom said. "It felt good to be wanted."

But although Bryant was decidedly successful last year, Rodriguez, like any recruiter, still missed on several coveted prospects. Olney (Md.) Good Counsel defensive end Joe Rosenblatt went to Georgetown, Sandy Spring (Md.) Sherwood cornerback Alex Cole went to North Carolina Central and Gaithersburg (Md.) High quarterback Zach Fetters went to William & Mary.

"Sometimes we get out-bid for kids -- we can't offer everyone a full ride -- sometimes the kid wants to play near his home, and sometimes a bigger program comes in," Rodriguez said. "To sit here and think we can go toe-to-toe with William & Mary or [James Madison] in the CAA, that's [not going to happen]."

Some critics point out that Bryant's success rate is overblown because several of their recruits had no other Division I FCS offers. If those kids were that good, the thinking goes, then someone else would have gone after them, too.

It's a claim Fine adamantly disputes.

"I've been doing this for more than 30 years and I believe my eyes," the coach said. "It's kind of like being married. My wife is beautiful in my eyes and I don't care what anyone else thinks. I know each and every one of those kids we brought in have showed me something."

Potomac (Md.) Bullis athlete Alex Friedlander was one of those lightly-sought-after recruits. He had zero scholarship offers in the weeks leading up to National Signing Day. At one point Friedlander figured his football playing days were over.

But Rodriguez and Fine saw something in the rail-thin 160-pound kid. He had a certain intangible presence, a certain character and desire that screamed "Bryant Bulldog."

Rodriguez made the call. And in doing so he changed a young man's life.

"I've always wanted to play college football," Friedlander said. "When Coach Rodriguez called, I was beyond excited. It can't get any better than this. Bryant is just the perfect school."

Maryland's class of 2011 Bryant signees

Ryan Caruso, TE, Howard

Jose Depadua, DB, Walkersville

Bryan Egolum, DT, Forestville

Alex Friedlander, ATH, Bullis

Antione Hudson, ATH, Landon

Bobby Rutland, ATH, Georgetown Prep

Brandon Soderstrom, WR, Century

Paul Taylor, DE, Poly

Edwin Thomasson, DT, Chesapeake-Balt.

Gunnar Waldt, FB, St. Paul's