Despite rough start to the year, this FIU recruit still committed to the Panthers
FIU’s 0-3 start hasn’t dissuaded him.
Not even close.
FIU recruit Jakovi Bryant, a 6-foot, 180-pound senior cornerback, plays for a Kissimmee Gateway team that has lost 15 straight games. Its last win came on Nov. 2, 2018. Gateway, which starts 11 freshmen on a team that has no other college recruits besides Bryant at the moment, is 0-4 this season.
But Bryant hasn’t quit on Gateway. And he hasn’t quit on FIU, either.
“I’m still locked in,” Bryant, 17, said without being asked. “I’m not looking to decommit.”
Already, one FIU recruit has changed his mind, however. On Oct. 21, Kenjuan Manuel, a 6-1, 295-pound defensive tackle from St. John’s (Washington D.C.), re-opened his recruitment.
That left FIU with nine recruits in a class that is so far ranked fifth-best in Conference USA, according to 247 Sports.
The early signing period of Dec. 16-18 is just over one month away, and Bryant plans to enroll at FIU in January.
Bryant’s loyalty to FIU goes both ways.
In the first scrimmage play of Gateway’s second game this season, Bryant dislocated his right shoulder while making a tackle.
It took 45 minutes to get Bryant to the hospital due to confusion as to whether anyone had called an ambulance. Family members finally drove him to the hospital.
“[The pain] was horrible,” Bryant said. “I couldn’t move [my arm].”
Bryant, who hasn’t played since that game, is now practicing and plans to return to action on Friday.
Gateway coach Marlin Roberts said Bryant has been a starter since his sophomore year, which is when he transferred in from Ocoee.
Bryant, who has been a track sprinter the past three years, was a running back until he got to Gateway. But Roberts looked at his skills and switched him to cornerback.
“He has great hips, great change of direction and great recovery speed,” Roberts said of Bryant, who intercepted five passes in 10 games last year. “He has a knack for finding the ball, and he can tackle.”
Roberts didn’t know it at the time, but Bryant’s uncle was a standout cornerback for the Georgia Bulldogs. Decory Bryant started 25 consecutive games for Georgia until a neck injury as a senior in 2003 ended his career, including dreams of the NFL.
Jakovi Bryant, who has run the 40-yard dash as fast as 4.48, plans to major in Economics at FIU.
He comes from an accomplished family, including his mother, Theresa Bryant, who was a class president in 1995 at Orlando Evans, where she was a gymnast and a heptathlete. She is now a nurse at a cancer institute in Orlando.
Jakovi’s father, Kenneth Bryant, served in the Marines for 21 years, working as a gunnery sergeant, seeing combat in Iraq for 18 months as well as Afghanistan (one year).
The family, including Jakovi from ages seven to 10, lived in Japan while Kenneth Bryant was stationed there.
“We moved every three years while I was a Marine,” said Bryant, who is now a pastor. “Moving around gave Jakovi the ability to adapt. He became resilient.”
Kenneth Bryant said his son could have transferred to another high school but was loyal to Gateway, in part because of his friendship with quarterback Jerry Wright.
“That is who we are as a family,” Kenneth Bryant said of that loyalty gene. “We don’t jump ship. We see things through.”
That’s good news for FIU.
THIS AND THAT
▪ FIU men’s basketball coach Jeremy Ballard said his team has been in “full practice mode” since Oct. 14. Players practice with masks, Ballard said.
FIU’s Conference USA schedule starts Dec. 31, and Ballard is confident he will soon announce a non-league slate that begins on Nov. 25.
▪ FIU’s football team (0-3), which postponed its game last Friday because of a COVID-19 outbreak, is now the only winless team in Conference USA following Rice’s victory on Saturday.