Bryant close to an Ole Miss commitment

The biggest performer for Ole Miss this season was one of its smallest players in the 5-foo-8, Dexter McCluster. Clearly the Ole Miss coaches understand that the value of a player doesn't always coincide with his height and Sanford (Fla.) Seminole linebacker Serderius Bryant agrees wholeheartedly.

A big-time performer on the field, Bryant's 5-foot-10 height has put a damper on his recruitment. However the Ole Miss staff believed in him enough to offer a scholarship and they may get rewarded with a commitment.

"Ole Miss was one of the schools that I've been wanting to go to and I've been talking to the coaches for a good little while now," Bryant said.

In fact Bryant is so excited about the Ole Miss that he was on the verge of a commitment on Wednesday evening.

"They said it's great when I talked about committing but Coach Price said he's been through the process and wanted to make sure I came down to see what I was committing to," he said. "I'm going to go down there to their camp so that they can see me. I think it's going to stick when I get down there and look at their campus."

Before that trip Bryant has a slew of other activities he plans to take part in. He will be going to junior days at Miami and UCF as well as the Miami camp. At this point, Bryant tentatively has around seven camp appearances scheduled.

"I just want to prove myself," he said. "People think I'm short and I just want to go out there and show them that height isn't really anything if you're a ball player."

That faith in him despite his height is one of the major factors that have Bryant with such a high interest level in the Rebels.

"Every time I talk to their coaches, every time I call Coach Price and Coach [Dickerson], all they say is that size doesn't really mean anything unless you're a ball player and you can play," he said. "Most schools are saying that I'm too short and if I grew a couple inches, they'd offer me and Ole Miss just came out and said, I don't care how short you are, you can play.

"Ole Miss is one of my favorite schools, it's in the SEC and they play all the good schools like Florida, Alabama, LSU. I look at their roster and they've got one linebacker that's 5-8, another that's 6-0 another that's 5-9 or 5-10 and their defense is good so they know how to use me there."

Bryant has certainly shown that he can be productive on the field. As a junior, he compiled 154 tackles, six sacks and 13 tackles for loss, that after picking up 10 sacks and 121 tackles as a sophomore.