By John Sarianides

Bryant University named Princeton offensive coordinator James Perry as its new football coach yesterday. Perry replaced Marty Fine who stepped down after leading the program for 12 years.

In Perry, the Bulldogs get a spread offense guru who coordinated the Princeton offense to record numbers last season. The Tigers averaged 43.7 points per game and 511.6 yards of total offense per game.

The Andover, Masschusetts native is no stranger to the state of Rhode Island. Perry quarterbacked the Brown Bears to an undefeated season and an Ivy League title in 1999 and set numerous school records in the process. Perry was a Walter Payton Award finalist his senior year and was a three time all-Ivy League selection.

Perry coached at Delaware and Brown prior to taking the offensive coordinator position at Princeton. He has extensive experience at the FCS level but more importantly, he’s coached at schools with rigorous academic standards. That experience should help Perry in recruiting at Bryant, a school with high academic standards.

Marty Fine did a great job of building up the Bryant football program and taking it from a Division 2 program to an FCS program. Now it’s up to Perry and his high flying spread offense to take the program to the next level. Fine laid a solid foundation and recruited some good talent. It’s up to Perry to build on that.

I can’t say enough about this hire. Bryant hit a home run with Perry.  It was time to go in a new direction with the football program and Perry is  the right man for the job. If given time, he will build a competitive program in Smithfield.