To put it bluntly, 2024 was ugly for the Bryant Bulldogs.

Looking at basically an entirely new roster and yet another conference change, it never felt like Chris Merrit’s team was able to fully settle in a year ago. Still, the Bulldogs easily could have had a few games go the other way during the 2-10 campaign, with four of the 10 losses coming by four, seven, seven and one point.

So now, heading into 2025 and with all kinds of support behind them from the school in the form of some beautiful new facilities, Bryant should be the team that no one in the CAA wants to see coming up on their schedule.

On Monday, Merritt, offensive lineman Anthony Perez and defensive lineman Max Villar represented the Bulldogs during their portion of the CAA Virtual Media Day.

“I don’t think anyone has more experience in different conferences than I do in my six years as Bryant being in four different conferences,” Merritt said. “Definitely the most challenging the conference, the best run conference and top-to-bottom, the most diverse when it comes to the amount of quality teams that we play week in and week out. I think anytime you have a new situation, it takes time to get your bearings. I think the target for us kind of leveled on the horizon a little bit for us, especially in the second half of the season.

“We knew what we had to do and we understand the level of execution we have to maintain now, the penalties we have to eliminate. All the things that we’re going to have to do if we expect to be successful in the CAA that maybe we could have gotten away with in some of the other conferences. That became clear to us and that’s been our focus in the offseason. We’ve pounded it, we’ve hounded it and hopefully we come into this season with a little bit of a chip on our shoulder.”

Both Perez and Villar are graduate students and have gone through all the changes along with Merritt through the last handful of years. With some stability finally in place, things feel like they’re about to turn.

“With my time here at Bryant I’ve been in four different conferences in, so it’s been a little bit of the same thing every year, kind of being that underdog kind of team,” said Perez. “Getting overlooked just because we’re the new guys in the conference. Coming into the CAA, we knew it was going to be a big challenge, it’s one of the best conferences in the FCS…I know the record doesn’t really show it, but we really came together as a team in that second half. I’m excited to get into this season and this camp because we have a lot to show.”

“Going into this next season, I’m very excited,” added Villar. “We’ve been working and building our foundation. It’s the most important thing to us. We focus on the day-to-day and the main thing we always preach here is, ‘if you want to be a great man in the future, all you have to do is be a great man today.’ The only thing that really matters is what you do today and if you get better.

“Last season, I think we had a lot of growing pains, but we learned a lot. First you learn and then you execute like in all things, in football and in life. So, I’m very excited for this upcoming season.”