Former UConn signee Rennick Bryan is no longer considering a return to UConn.

Bryan enrolled at UConn last summer and took part in the early portion of preseason camp in 2012, seeing some time with the second-team offensive line.

However, the NCAA red flagged Bryan's Hillhouse High School transcript and declared him ineligible. Bryan enrolled at Dean College, a two-year college in Franklin, Mass.

Bryan played at Dean during the 2012 season but did not return to Dean.

Bryan said he is currently enrolled at Gateway Community College and taking the classes so he can get the 25 credits needed to enroll at a four-year school. Bryan said he is considering going to either New Haven or Southern Connecticut State.

When I asked him if that means UConn is no longer in the picture he said "that's a done deal."

Speaking of former UConn commits, linebacker Cory Jasudowich did not record a tackle but appeared on the participation chart for New Haven in Saturday's season-opening loss to West Chester.

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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With UConn not having a game this weekend, I took the opportunity to drive up to Dean College to catch up with Rennick Bryan, who began the summer practicing with the Huskies before academic issues resulted in him heading to the junior college.

Bryan, who was seeing some snaps with the second-team offensive line by the end of the first week of practice during preseason camp, made it clear that he still wants to play at UConn. He is planning to take enough summer school classes at Dean so he can graduate from Dean by December of 2014.


“If my home university wants me back, I will go back to the University of Connecticut,” Bryan 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 (2014).”

Bryan has been starting at guard at Dean but he was dealing with some injuries which limited him to blocking only on extra points and field goals.

Through his entire ordeal, Bryan has maintained a positive attitude.


“It was been a change,” Bryan said after Dean College’s 44-6 win over Globe Institute of Technology. “It’s been a dramatic change being at UConn and coming to a junior college but I just had to adapt and rise to the occasion and do what I had to do here and be a better player.

“My emotions, I’ll admit I was down but I knew I had to be a man and clear my mind of things. I knew I had to focus what I wanted to focus on. I still had to come to another school, I still had to do my school work and I still had to play football no matter what. Yes, I was down and I had to step up to the occasion.”

Bryan and his family drew rave reviews from Dean College football coach Todd Vasey on the way they have dealt with the suddenness of going from UConn to Dean.

“He (Bryan) has handled it great,” Vasey said. “He and his family have been fantastic. They come here and are making this work. As long as he needs to be here, we are going to get him back to UConn. Jason Sylva was offered by UConn, he is going to get his Associates (degree) and then we are going to get him back to UConn.”

If he does end up back at UConn, he could see some familiar faces. Dean’s sophomore defensive tackle Lance Burlingame, who missed Saturday’s game with an ankle injury, has committed to UConn. Freshman middle linebacker Jason Sylva also signed with UConn in February and came to Dean with the hope of being able to suit up for the Huskies after graduating from Dean.

UConn defensive coordinator Don Brown was at Dean on Friday and Dean head coach Todd Vasey is determined to help Bryan and Sylva get back to UConn for their junior and senior seasons.

Bryan said he still keeps in touch with his former teammates at UConn and is eager to head up there to visit.

“That is my Husky family,” Bryan said. “I love them and I will be making a visit up there to say hi to my fellow teammates. Hopefully I will be back over there soon. It is tough to watch them struggle because being with them with the whole camp and during the summer. They work and every Saturday I hope to see them step up their game and get better, get hungrier and just win. I’ll be glad to go back there and help them out with that.”

Vasey was reluctant to say if there were there other players from Dean the Huskies are looking at.

It's just my opinion, but the best player on the field was uncommitted sophomore defensive end Rashard Simmons. I had Simmons with three sacks and four tackles for losses but he seemed to be in the backfield on nearly every play. Simmons is listed as being 6-5 and 227 pounds and looks like he could easily add 15-20 pounds onto his frame and be a dynamic edge rusher at the next level.

FORMER AREA STARS THRIVING AT DEAN
Bryan is far from the only former Southern Connecticut Conference star who has found a home at Dean.
DaShon Riley and Byron Pinkston, who played at Hillhouse and Hamden respectively, are two-year starters at offensive tackle while former Law High star Chris Laporte started at left guard for a Dean team which ran for 253 yards and had 416 yards of total offense in Saturday’s win.

“They are my boys, I didn’t really know them until I got here but we are like brothers now,” Pinkston said.
Of the 12 offensive linemen on Dean’s roster, six played scholastically in the New Haven area.

“We love the high school talent in Connecticut,” Vasey said. “We go down and try to get the best guys we can that need a junior-college opportunity. We are working with UConn, we work with Southern, New Haven, they recruit our guys and they help us so we are all working together.”

Former Sheehan High star Maxx Frisco is a starting linebacker who had four tackles in Dean’s sixth win of the year.

All the local products came to Dean with the hopes of securing a football scholarship. Pinkston’s dreams are close to becoming a reality as he was recently offered a full ride to Florida Atlantic University. The others also hope to catch the eyes of major college football program.

“This is probably New Haven’s finest right here,” Riley said. “We have to get everything together and get ready for the next level hopefully.”

Former Hillhouse lineman Rennick Bryan, who originally committed to UConn and took part in preseason camp with the Huskies, is enrolled at Dean College in Franklin, Mass. according to Dean athletic director John Jackson.

Bryan, who was seeing some time with UConn’s second-team offensive line early in fall camp, had a couple of core classes that were not approved by the NCAA clearinghouse and would have been academically ineligible to play at UConn according to Jackson.

Bryan, who did not play in Dean’s season-opening loss to Navy Prep, is expected to see some action when Dean plays its home opener on Saturday against Monroe Community College.

As of Wednesday morning Bryan was still on the UConn roster but he was not in the stadium when UConn played UMass in the season opener on Thursday night. UPDATED AT 3:15 P.M.: UConn announced that Bryan is no longer enrolled at UConn and has removed him from the roster. Other than UConn football coach Paul Pasqualoni saying “we are just trying to gather as much information as we can right now before we (proceed),” after Thursday’s game UConn has not commented publicly on Bryan’s status.

Bryan is one of three former Hillhouse linemen on the Dean College squad joining freshman Khamil Rangolam and sophomore DaShon Riley. A fourth New Haven native (former North Branford lineman Damoy Hunter) is also on the team.

Bryan had impressed the UConn coaching staff and before the end of the first week of fall camp he was being worked in at guard with the second-team offensive line.

Since he was considered to be a non-qualifier coming out of Hillhouse, Bryan will need to spend two years at Dean and graduate from the junior college before he could return to UConn or another four-year school.