Jacob Weese
Despite living in The Woodlands the first 10 years of his life, Wyatt Bryan's Viking blood was too strong.
It only made sense that he and his family would find their way back to the city of Bryan since the senior linebacker is the great-great grandson of the high school's namesake, Travis B. Bryan.
Having the same last name as both your high school and city leads to the usual questions.
"I get a lot of 'do you own the town' and stuff," Wyatt laughed. "Obviously it's a no, but people love to ask, 'Do you own the town' or 'Hey, you own the school' or 'Hey, you can get out of [any] trouble?' I get a lot of those."
Even before the family moved to Bryan, Wyatt was already a Viking fan. Not just because of the family history but also because they would come to Viking football games even before living here.
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"Middle school is probably when I started getting into it," Wyatt said about Vikings he liked watching. "We had several good linebackers out here like Tate Allen, I looked up to him. We had a good quarterback [in] Malcom Gooden, I was pretty impressed by him. A lot of great receivers."
The Vikings weren't the only team that Wyatt grew up watching either as like most people in the area, he grew up watching Texas A&M football games. And while he's a linebacker now, he originally had dreams of being a quarterback.
"And really the first quarterback that I remember is Johnny Manziel," Wyatt said. "He was kind of my legend, and he was who I wanted to be when I grew up, that was what I wanted to be. So, I just fell in love with football and ever since I've been playing."
Wyatt did get to live out his quarterback dreams in both middle school and on the junior varsity. He was a linebacker/quarterback in middle school although he jokes now, he probably was "the backup QB" as he wasn't "very good."
Once he got to high school, he was a linebacker as a freshman and then quarterbacked on the JV. Last season, he flipped back to defense and linebacker where he's been a two-year starter on the varsity.
That doesn't mean he hasn't tried to take a few snaps under center as a possible wildcat quarterback.
"Dude, I wish, all the time," Wyatt laughed. "I'm always asking, 'Coach, let me get a play on offense, let me get a play on offense.' That's always been something I've always kind of wanted since I usually play defense, so I've always desired to play on offense. So, I always beg, 'Coach, let me get one play.'"
Despite wanting to live out the Johnny Football dream, Wyatt's found more success by following in the footsteps of Aggie great Dat Nguyen.
In his second season, it's a whole different ballgame.
"I feel more comfortable and confident out there," Wyatt said. "I feel like I know what I'm doing, and I feel like it doesn't matter who we're playing against I can have some impact on the game."
Not only has he been a two-year starter on defense, but he also was named a team captain this season.
It's an accomplishment that when he was playing in middle school he didn't see happening, although that's partially because how far that is from high school, but one he was "honored and pretty excited" to receive.
He earned captain status thanks to his teammates voting for him along with the other four captains -- senior defensive lineman Chester Gooden Jr., junior quarterback Cooper Murr, senior defensive back Troy Odle and fellow senior linebacker Carson Dodd.
The Vikings (0-3) close out nondistrict play against George Ranch at 6 p.m. Saturday at Traylor Stadium.
"Well, it's my senior year and it's my last year, so I'm just trying to go out there and have fun and have something that's memorable," Wyatt said of his goals for the season. "Obviously, winning's memorable and making big plays are memorable so those are probably my two goals."
NOTES -- Wyatt is a two-sport athlete for the Vikings as he also is a member of the baseball team. The outfielder made his varsity debut in the sport as a junior and will be on the varsity again this spring. His main positions in the outfield are right and left field. He likes juggling two sports. "For one, when you're not having success in one, you've always got the other to look forward to which keeps my spirits high and gets me excited and keeps me going," Wyatt said. "The sports are good 'cause you need coordination in both, and you work on hand-eye coordination and stuff, and you just build skills from one that you can use in the other."
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