Last week when Bryant head coach Chris Merritt was talking about his team’s bye week, he hoped to see a higher sense of urgency in the day-to-day preparation.

Merritt also noted that getting ready for a rival like Brown – even in a non-conference game – was hopefully going to help inspire that sense of urgency.

Well, after a wild shootout win over the Bears, Merritt said Monday that he and his staff saw exactly what they were hoping to see leading up to that game.

“Yeah, this was a great teaching week for us,” he said. “I think we had the best week of practice we had all season. The numbers on our Catapult’s (tracking wear) showed it. When you have success after that type of week of practice and you’ve made your point, you’ve talked about sense of urgency, it’s really easy for us as coaches to follow that up. Practicing the way we practiced and running around the way we ran around, it doesn’t guarantee us a win, but boy, it sure gives us the best shot to do it.

“We need that duplicated effort against yet another playoff team from last year (Albany). I think this is our fourth out of five teams to open up the season with this caliber of a ball club.”

The Brown win was big for so many different reasons with a young team, but there was just a little something missing at the end of such an epic game.

After all, Brown and URI will be playing for The Governor’s Cup this weekend. Bryant will see URI later this season (now as conference foes), but the idea of a trophy for all three schools – or at least for the Bryant/Brown game – is one Merritt is fully in favor of.

Perhaps The Ocean State Cup? Or, The Battle of Rhode Island Trophy? We can workshop it.

“100%,” he answered when asked about it. “I had the opportunity to sit next to Governor McKee…his sister was inducted into the Bryant Hall of Fame a couple months ago and we actually talked about the subject. Very little people know that Bryant used to be located right next to Brown on Hope St. in downtown Providence and they bought our property to expand their university. So, this was a big one. A big one for the pride of the Alumni. We beat Franklin Pierce and I kind of joked about this a little bit, I don’t think I got too many texts aside from close family and friends.

“But, we beat Brown and Board of Trustees and presidents and proud alumni are coming out of the woodwork. That’s great for the program and gives them a sense of pride and we’re excited to be the cause of that.”

There may not have been a trophy, but the reward of preaching that sense of urgency all of last week was a nice consolation prize.

As the Bulldogs head into their stretch of all CAA-play from here on out, the Brown week can serve as a springboard to bigger and better things for Merritt and his program.