What ever happened to...Cleve Bryant, star Ohio quarterback, head coach

Cleve Bryant is one of the finest players ever to have suited up for the Ohio University Bobcats football team. His six years as the team's head coach were much less glory-filled than his years as an Ohio quarterback, but today, 20 years after leaving the school, he's still proud of what he accomplished here.

After losing his coaching job at OU after the 1989 season, Bryant bounced around to three different college assistant coaching jobs in seven years, before ending up at the University of Texas, where he's now the Longhorns' associate athletics director for football operations.

When The Athens NEWS caught up with him by phone last week, Bryant sounded like a man comfortable with himself and his lot in life, unassuming about his accomplishments, and with a healthy sense of humor about his less accomplished moments.

Bryant recalled that when he came first to Ohio as a head coach in 1984 (he had served as a QB/wide-receiver coach here in 1977), he was coming off assistant coaching jobs with Miami University ("our arch-rival!" he laughs), the North Carolina Tar Heels and the NFL's New England Patriots.

By leaving pro ball for OU in 1984, he noted, he managed to leave the Patriots just before they won their first-ever Super Bowl. So what brought him back to his alma mater?

"Oh, heck," Bryant said. "I think at the time, for me, it was that I wanted to be a head coach."

After serving as an assistant coach in college ball, he said, he figured "the best route for me at that time was to go to the NFL, and keep watching for a chance to become a head coach (in college ball)."

Bryant recalled that when he applied for the job as Ohio's head coach, he got a recommendation from former university President Vernon Alden, who "was the president at Ohio University when I was a player."

I mentioned that he was a little more than just "a player" "“ he led the 'Cats to two Mid-America Conference championships, was named all-conference, and was later inducted into both the OU and Citrus Bowl halls of fame. (He got drafted by the Denver Broncos, but didn't make the team.) Bryant, though, was offhand about his record as a player.

"Oh, somebody would have to really be old to remember when I was there," he joked.

Bryant's years coaching his old team weren't exactly glory years for the Bobcats "“ a fact he easily admits.

After taking over in 1984, Bryant posted a 2-9 record in his freshman coaching year, followed by two straight 1-10 seasons in 1986 and 1987. The team improved somewhat in 1988, putting up a 4-6-1 record, but after it fell back to 1-9-1 the next year, the ax fell on Bryant.

While readily admitting his less-than-stellar record in the win-loss department, Bryant still believes he has something to be proud of from those days.

"I think we made a difference in the lives of some young people," he said. "We did not win enough ball games. We were not good enough athletically to win enough games for them to be able to keep me, and I totally understand that."

Though his won-loss record wasn't anywhere near the best in the nation, he said, the academic performance and graduation rates of his players were. One of his fondest memories, he said, was of a game against Eastern Michigan.

"It was toward the end of the year, and kids had final exams," he recalled. "I had to call a timeout, so they could go take final exams. And that included starters! But the expectation was the same "“ win the game."

After Ohio, Bryant moved to Illinois, where he was a wide-receiver coach, then followed Mac Brown to Texas for three years (1992-94). After a three-year stint with North Carolina again, this time as a wide-receiver coach and recruiter, Bryant returned to Texas as an assistant AD, before moving up to his current position in 2000.

I suggested that football with the Longhorns must be significantly different than with the Bobcats, but Bryant wouldn't bite. "Yep," was all he said.

He noted that at one point during his time at Texas, Frank Solich, fresh out of his job at the University of Nebraska, passed through the Longhorns' program briefly, before taking the head coaching job at Ohio.

"I've always liked Frank," Bryant said. "And I talked to Dr. McDavis about him, and that he would do a heck of a job there. And he has."

As this observation might suggest, Bryant still follows the Bobcats' football fortunes, though he's found a dream job at Texas.

"It's a great job," he said. "I can't believe they're paying me for it."