Cisco Bryant kept a close eye on UK's Fan Day scrimmage Saturday. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Junior safety Ty Bryant has been an impact player for the Kentucky defense the last two seasons and certainly is expected to be again this season.
“You’ve heard me sit here at press conferences when he was a freshman and talk about how he was more mature beyond his years, and it’s still the same,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said. “He’s such a solid guy and a great culture guy, great team.”
Bryant was solid last year even though UK went 4-8 and other teams noticed.
“I can’t say the topic of transferring did not come up because it did,” said Cisco Bryant, Ty’s father. “But him not even getting in the transfer portal tells you he did not look to leave.
“He had a few college teams interested but they did not talk to him directly. He just heard things, which is part of college athletics now. Sometimes the grass does look greener somewhere else but you mow the grass and realize there are rocks in their grass, too.”
Even when a player stays at the same school, there is still determining what is fair compensation now that players can be paid.
“The biggest thing to me is making sure a kid is getting their worth and not worrying about what someone else is getting,” Cisco Bryant said. “He should be worth a lot based on what he has already done but I always think the glamour positions of quarterback, receiver and defensive end are where schools have their minds set to spend the most money.
“But you also have to consider a kid’s production and background. Ty comes from a history of and background of winning. There are not too many teams he has played on that didn’t win whether it was football, baseball or basketball.”
Stoops admits UK’s overall culture was not perfect last year and that’s what made keeping a player like Bryant even more important.
“That is something that I’ve talked about through the offseason that was probably touchy with me because I feel like it (culture) did fall short, but I feel like it’s never a bad culture. It’s just not to our expectation,” Stoops said. “When you lose, you look at everything, and everything is on the table, and that’s certainly part of it.
“I mentioned that when we looked at all of our things, culture is the first one, and we want to make sure it gets back to the level that we expect.”
2 Responses
Ty Bryant might have the highest ceiling in the secondary. I think he's going to have a breakout season.
He has a solid DC so his potential is much more likely to be reached than an offensive player under the OC.
UK has the potential to have a solid D, but they will face wearing down if the OC, OL coach & their players don’t make giant strides to leave that 4-8 season behind
Culture is importantly and Stoops produced a solid culture as the years went by and then it collapsed when the OC revolving door and insistence on running the ball up the middle too often cost UK too many 3 & outs.
Projected 15th out of 16 SEC teams is a dark outlook to have to overcome. The very first game needs to reveal a team bursting into the field with energy beyond anything we have seen at UK in a long , long time. I still believe great speakers before the game, this with a good UK career, is a key to a better start.