Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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noting his father is currently the defensive line coach at American Heritage. "He developed me to be an athlete — not just a running back. Nobody knows where you're going to play when you're growing up so he wanted me to learn all the positions, and it all worked out in the end." Bryant has two younger sisters, 13 and 9, and he has taken pride in being a great example for them. "I've been a leader for them, and I always tell them to work hard in school," he said. "School work should never be the reason why someone can't follow their dreams. They want to go to college someday like I am, so they just have to get it done and keep their focus." The Florida native, despite distractions, never lost his focus. Although he made an early pledge to Oklahoma due to what he claims was the anxiety that comes with the process, he was glad to find where he really wanted to be when he visited Notre Dame Dec. 7. "I wasn't thinking about committing at all," Bryant said. "That wasn't even on my mind. I was just thinking of it as taking a trip to see if I like it. I just didn't know I was going to commit." What he did know was that he didn't want to let a good thing pass him by and when reviewing the quick relationship he was able to build with running backs/slot receivers coach Tony Alford and with the program as a whole, he was ready to shut things down right then and there. "My last night there I told Coach Alford that I was just going to go ahead and commit," Bryant recalled. "We were at dinner, everybody was there, and I just had that feeling. I called my dad before I did it, and he said it was my best option. It was a wrap after that. "Notre Dame accepted it pretty quickly, and they were excited about me wanting to come because they didn't know it was coming either." Bryant, who was noted as being the most physically impressive running back in the land by 247Sports, says it is all genes, but there was work put in as well. "I love to work hard," he said. "You never know how hard everyone else is working, so you might as well give everything you have. That's how I was brought up — to be the best — and that doesn't happen without hard work." Bryant's mother is his "biggest fan," and he said that she takes the type of laid-back approach to the process that helped balance it all out. And regardless of whether she knew what the call was, he knew if he was involved she'd be the loudest one in the stands. It started by just stepping over the curb. But while that place was a way to get away and get better, Bryant is now ready to walk through the tunnel in Notre Dame Stadium. "I never really thought I'd be going to Notre Dame," Bryant said. "But when I took that visit — I felt like I was home. "I thank God for everything in my life because it's all made me who I am. I can't wait to put on that gold helmet." ✦