Attempting to catch up
With new quarterback, Bryant offense has opportunity to augment stingy defense
SMITHFIELD — Bryant University quarterback Gage Moloney has yet to play a single down for the Bulldogs, but coach Chris Merritt is already reaching out to the graduate transfer for advice.
Merritt, who is entering his third season in Smithfield, was one of the best high-school coaches in the country for nearly two decades in Miami, but he has yet to lead the Bulldogs to a championship, something Moloney is familiar with after playing for Colonial
Athletic Association powerhouse James Madison for the last four seasons.
“We have two grad transfers who have come into this program from championship programs and one of them is Gage from JMU,” Bryant coach Chris Merritt said. “I’m eager to sit with them and pick their brain and learn some things because I don’t have the experience of being with a college championship program. I can talk about high school, but there are still things that I can learn from them.”
“I see a lot of guys stepping up and a lot of the older guys doing a great job leading a young team.”
— Bryant quarterback Gage Moloney
Moloney appeared in 14 games and threw three touchdown passes in the last three seasons for a Dukes squad that went to a pair of national championship games in the last four seasons. Moloney said James Madison’s recipe for success is simple – beyond just having good players.
“It was a brotherhood at JMU,” Moloney said. “We had different position coaches and different head coaches and we never changed anything. We always played for each other and we knew the goal was the goal no matter what. All that was player-led and I feel like we’re on the same track here. I see a lot of guys stepping up and a lot of the older guys doing a great job leading a young team.”
Moloney, who is entered in Bryant’s prestigious MBA program, said he chose to move to New England because Bryant was the first program to reach out to him when he put his name in the transfer portal after the spring season. Moloney said another big selling point was the Conaty Indoor Athletic Center.
“There’s no question he has a presence about him,” Merritt said.
Unlike his time at JMU when he was the back-up quarterback who played when the Dukes were blowing out inferior CAA teams, Moloney is the unquestioned starter for an offense that struggled to match the defense’s production in the spring. While the defense was ranked No. 1 in the Northeast Conference in the four-game pandemic season, the offense sputtered with Kory Curtis and freshman Ryan Clark at the controls.
Curtis left for Division II Gannon University, while Clark is the Bulldogs’ backup. That means that the lefthanded Moloney – along with first-team all-NEC running back Daniel Adeboboye – is being trusted to get the offense to a point where the Bulldogs can compete for the conference title.
“I’m a big physical quarterback and I’m going to run the ball downhill when I’m running it,” said Maloney, who is currently
interested in medical device sales after he calls his final play on the field. “I’m going to facilitate the ball into my playmakers’ hands because it’s my job to make it easy for them. Seeing this offense make plays against one of the top defenses in the NEC certainly is giving this young group confidence.”
The good news for Moloney is he’s throwing the ball to a hungry group of pass catchers who simply weren’t given much of a chance in the spring. Clark and Curtis combined to complete just 51.1 percent of their passes for 412 yards and just one touchdown. Senior David Zorrilla led the team with 11 receptions
and caught the only touchdown pass.
The Everett, Mass. native had a solid freshman season when Price Wilson was breaking school passing records, but his development stagnated over the last two seasons when the Bulldogs didn’t have a quarterback who could drive the ball down the field. The senior believes that will change this season.
“We’re going so much better every day in practice against this defense,” Zorrilla said. “Gage is doing a great job with his reads and he’s throwing the ball where it needs to be and then everyone else is just doing their job. The big word for us is consistent and everyone has been consistent in camp. Coach Merritt talks about stacking days because you want to have a good day after another good day.”
Graduate receiver Alex Rasmussen is another player Moloney could help return to the player who thrived when Wilson was tossing the ball around Beirne Stadium in 2018. After catching 22 passes in his sophomore season, Rasmussen combined to catch five passes in five games over the last two seasons.
Moloney should also benefit from the improvement at tight end where Jihad Edmond leads a group that Merritt has focused on enhancing since he took over the program. Edmond caught nine passes last season and that number should only go up with more time in the system.
“The offense has a lot of new pieces here and we have a lot of guys who want to work and grind,” Edmond said. “We talk about the process every day and we’re loving it and engaged in it and working on it every day. As tight ends, we preach being the best of both worlds. We have to be physical and block like a lineman and catch the ball like receivers. Coach is giving me and the other tight ends a chance to shine in this offense.”
After Wednesday morning’s practice at Beirne Stadium, Merritt told his team that iron sharpens iron. The defense proved to be as durable as tungsten in the spring, but time will tell if the offense can approach that standard or if the unit will be as strong as tin foil for a second straight campaign.
“When the offense gets better, that can only help the defense,” Merritt said. “We’re trying to compete against each other in something every day, so when Saturdays come around in the fall, we’ve been doing it for six straight weeks. Since the spring, we’ve made our offense better right down the middle. We added a couple of linemen, a new receiver and a quarterback to go along with a very good running back. We made ourselves instantly better.”