Those competitive juices that bubble during a normal football game could come to a boil Saturday afternoon when Brown kicks off its 142ndfootball season at Bryant.
Brown has a new coach, James Perry, who is also Bryant’s old coach. Perry hired a new staff, which is mostly Bryant’s old staff.
As you can imagine, folks at Bryant were not happy last December, when Brown’s new coach became their old coach and his new staff became their old staff. They would love to spoil Perry’s Brown debut and send him and his Bears back to Providence with a loss.
But there’s a little problem with that wish. This will be Bryant’s fourth game, and the first three did not turn out so well for The Bulldogs. They lost at Stony Brook and Albany and at home to Fordham. Chris Merritt, a successful high-school coach in Miami, is still looking for his first victory at the college level. How sweet if it occurred against the team coached by the guy who used to occupy his office.
Perry, you might recall, was the best quarterback in Brown football history. As a senior in 1999, he led the Bears to the Ivy League championship and reaped recognition as the best player in the Ivy League and the best offensive performer in New England. He shattered Ivy League passing records while posting a 23-7 record in three All-Ivy years as a starter.
Perry earned his coaching credentials with stints as an assistant at Dartmouth, Williams, Maryland, Brown and Princeton. He was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Princeton, and under his direction the Tigers ran an up-tempo, high-scoring offense that helped produce two Ivy championships, three Ivy player of the year quarterbacks and 36 All-Ivy offensive players.
Head coach was the next rung on Perry’s career ladder, and when Bryant called in 2017, Perry answered. He ran the same high-powered offense, but the results were just okay. His two teams produced consecutive 6-5 records.
Bryant leaders knew Perry would not stay in Smithfield forever. They hoped for about five years, time enough for Perry to develop and for Brown coach Phil Estes to finish his career and retire.
But it did not work out that way. Twenty-one seasons, 115 victories against 94 losses, three Ivy League championships, regular finishes in the top half of the league and the records of Perry and a bunch of All-Ivy Bears were not enough to save Estes’s job after five consecutive non-winning seasons and a 3-17 record in the last two.
Two days after losing the 2018 finale to Dartmouth, Estes resigned. That’s polite phrasing for step down, Phil, or get fired. Two weeks later, Perry was back on the East Side, the new coach at his alma mater. Over the ensuing few weeks, five assistants followed him to Providence from Smithfield.
As Don Corleone’s memorable line in The Godfather goes, Brown made Perry “an offer you can’t refuse.” Bryant is a fine university and has made unbelievable strides under the leadership of President Ron Machtley, but Bryant is not Brown. And the Northeast Conference is not the Ivy League. If Perry passed up this opportunity, who knows when the next chance to coach at Brown would occur?
Plus, Perry’s college football roots are at Brown. He met his wife at Brown. He had already coached at Brown. He spent only two years at Bryant, not long enough to develop the loyalty he has for Brown.
So, James Perry accepted Brown’s invitation to return to his football home. Chris Merritt accepted Bryant’s invitation to step up to the college level. Saturday afternoon at Beirne Stadium on the Bryant campus, we’ll get an idea how this will play out.
As for the game itself, Brown quarterback E.J. Perry IV is James Perry’s nephew. He smashed Massachusetts passing records while playing for his dad at Andover High School and was a backup who saw playing time at Boston College. At times Perry may have two other quarterbacks on the field with him. Brown’s offense should be fun to watch this season, but has the defense improved? That’s the question. The answer will determine if Brown wins or loses.
Off the field, Chris Humm, Brown’s able sports information director since 1988, will be in the press box for his 32ndseason opener and his 310thconsecutive Brown football game. That’s right. He has not missed a game since he arrived on campus. The streak would already be 310, but the Brown-San Diego game in 2001 was cancelled after the attacks of Sept. 11.
