Checking in on former Hillhouse offensive lineman Rennick Bryan, who signed with UConn before landing at Dean College, was pretty high on my to-do list this summer.

I ran into Hillhouse coach Tom Dyer at the Military Bowl at Rentschler Field and he said while Bryan still wanted to return to UConn, he had business to tend to at Dean. The next step was to reach out to Bryan himself to see if all was going according to plan. Well,. sometimes the stars just align because I was assigned to write a feature off the women's basketball summer league run by the city of New Haven and when I headed out to Wilbur Cross Monday night, who else did I run into other than Rennick Bryan?

When I approached him he chose his words carefully and while he said he could return to UConn, it is hardly a sure thing.

Bryan actually took part in practice at UConn for about a week last summer but the NCAA red-flagged his academic transcript. Bryan quickly landed at Dean.

I headed up to a Dean game in October to catch up with Bryan and he said "that is my goal and that is what I want to get back to, going back to UConn. I’ll be taking summer classes here hopefully doing a year and a half and be there by second semester of next year."

Bryan's timeline changed when I spoke with him on Monday.

"I don’t know about (enrolling at UConn in) January because you have to have 48 credits to transfer back to it so it is going to take a full year, it is not going to be that quick to get back into it," Bryan said. "It is going to take the whole year. I’ll probably have to end up taking more summer classes after this year so I can be up to par with it but I am trying to stay in shape."

He also brought up the possibility of landing somewhere else which was not the case when I spoke to him at Dean.

"I am just trying to keep it going, try to keep my hopes up but if things don’t work out and I can’t go back (to UConn)  and there are other schools out there looking for me, I would be happy, I wouldn’t mind changing my mind to where I am going. It all comes down to whatever happens."

The next step is for Bryan to return to Dean to finish up his academic work because he has to graduate from Dean before he can enroll at UConn or any other four-year college. I hope that happens although when I asked him when he was planning to head back to Dean he wasn't exactly sure saying "(in) August. I have to call Coach (Todd Vasey) and ask about it."

That answer is a little alarming. I do hope that Bryan returns to Dean, takes care of his academic responsibilities and then he heads back to a four-year college.

I really like Rennick. A lot of kids in his situation would have politely declined to speak with him and I hope everything works out for the best.
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