Oct. 11, 2002

Charleston, SC - The life of a scout-team player? Dan Blary can tell you about it.

"Three years of heartbreak," said Blary, a senior offensive tackle for The Citadel's football team. "You're sitting on the sidelines, thinking, 'Okay, it's my turn.'

"But you have to know your place on the team. If we didn't have a scout team and then the guys who play in the games, we wouldn't have a team."

At long last - four years after he arrived at The Citadel as a walk-on player - the barrel-chested Blary has found a place among the guys who play in the games.

Blary, 6-3 and 295 pounds, spent most of three years as a scout-team player, running through the opposition's plays in practice to give the defensive starters a look. Last season, he played all of 15 snaps in actual games.

But this season, Blary earned a spot in the starting lineup on an offensive line that has been "the most pleasant surprise on the whole team," according to coach Ellis Johnson. And Blary, who redshirted as a freshman, said this week he will return to The Citadel for a fifth year next season.

Blary's success - he was named Bulldog of the week for his performance in last week's 34-30 loss at Wyoming - is due to determination and hard work, and the patient teaching of offensive line coach Jeff Fela.

"Dan is the type of guy coaches love to think about," Johnson said. "He comes in as a walk-on, never complains or whines about when he'll get to play. The guy is a senior in college before he ever gets to play, but he's done nothing but work as hard as he can. He's come a long way."

That's for sure. As a high school junior back home in Mechanicsville, Va., Blary wasn't even playing football.

"I was just doing the usual high school stuff," he said. "Hanging with the wrong crowd, just average in grades, not playing any sports after I got my driver's license."

Not happy with the direction he was heading, Blary decided midway through his junior year to go to Fishburne Military School, a college prep school in Waynesboro, Va., that counts pro-wrestling impresario Vince McMahon among its alumni.

"It turned my life around," Blary said. "I wasn't doing anything with my life, and I wanted to do something. When I went to Fishburne, I started playing sports - football, wrestling, track, baseball."

After graduation, Blary wanted another military school for college - "Why mess up a good thing?" he said. His choices were The Citadel and Virginia Military Institute.

"VMI is a little too much in the middle of nowhere," he said.

At The Citadel, Blary had to rework his body and improve his footwork before he could even think about playing. He came in at 300 pounds, dropped down to 260 and built himself back up to his current 295, becoming one of the strongest players on the team along the way. He can bench press 430 pounds, squat 575 and hang-clean 355, all among the top figures on the team.

And in the last two years under Fela's guidance, Blary's technique and footwork have improved greatly.

"Sometimes, I thought Dan would never get it right," said senior tailback Nate Mahoney. "But he really worked hard and got a lot stronger. He's one of the strongest guys I've ever seen and has really come a long, long way.

Said Johnson, "Dan is probably as good a pass protector as we have, and he's a lot better technician than he was two years ago. That's a credit to Jeff Fela, and that's the way Dan has to play and the way a lot of offensive linemen have to play. They can't just play off of talent."

All of the Bulldogs' linemen - junior tackle Jared Perdue, junior guards Lew Dawson and Kevin Olecki and senior center Chad Boozer - have made similar strides in their careers. They are a big reason the Bulldogs are averaging 247.8 passing yards (second in the Southern Conference) and 406.2 total yards (third in the SoCon) this season.

"We are much more productive than I could have imagined we'd be at this point of offense," Johnson said.

"And that's a tremendous compliment to the offensive line as much as any other group. Obviously, (quarterback) Jeff Klein has been critical, the receivers and tight ends are making great plays, and we've got some talented running backs. But the line, they've been the most pleasant surprise on the whole team to this point."

Said Klein, "They are doing a great job. We are rushing the football so well, and there's a reason for that - the front five."