2016 Tight End Bryce Dixon committed to run with the Wolfpack back on June 27th, shortly after camping at NC State on June 8th.  Dixon and his Green Hope High School Football Team kick off their 2015 season tonight in an away game against Heritage High School in Wake Forest.  I reached out to his head coach Kwame Dixon yesterday, who happens to also be Bryce’s father, to get his take on what it’s been like to coach his son.

“It’s been challenging to say the least.  Bryce loves football and works really hard.  We’re an out-of-county family.  I live in Johnston County, but I teach in Wake County.  Bryce came into high school without a lot of social support, so he was trying to make his way.  That’s difficult for a regular student, even more difficult when your dad is a teacher at the school, and even more difficult when you’re a new student and your dad is a teacher and the head football coach,” said Coach Dixon. “We have a 45-minute commute each day, so Bryce and I spend a lot of time together.  That drive presents the opportunity for disagreement and joyous fun-loving times as well.  He’s been a joy to coach.  We’ve cried together at the end of seasons, laughed together, and even bumped heads, but ultimately we both know that we’re father and son.  Coaching is something I do, and football is something he does, but we will always be father and son.”

Coach Dixon talked about the “good” weight that Bryce showed up to NC State camp with this summer, and explained how his newly found size completely changed the way that the Wolfpack coaches saw him.

“The biggest thing has been Bryce’s size.  Being a former college coach and player, when I was evaluating him I was concerned about his top end speed.  The game is played at a certain speed, and it doesn’t matter how well you catch or block.  Bryce has consistently been around a 4.6 guy (40-yard dash), which isn’t the speed that teams are looking for in a wide receiver.  His recruitment was lukewarm at best, but he caught a lot of peoples eye when he put on weight,” said Coach Dixon “When he reported to NC State camp at 225, and was just as fast as he had been at 205.  They saw that he’s a very talented route runner and you don’t have to teach him how to catch.  He’s fast enough to break away from defenders, even more so if he’s working against safeties and linebackers.  When he gained that weight it reopened their eyes.  Old Dominion had been talking about him playing that position for a long time, that he could a h-back, slot back, wide receiver kind of guy.  It wasn’t until after Bryce went to camp, and saw his weight, that NC State then saw him as an H-Back.”

Back in the Spring, Coach Dixon met with NC State offensive coordinator Matt Canada and tight ends coach Eddie Faulkner.  As a result, he adopted a lot of the Wolfpack’s schemes, and thinks that his son Bryce will be ahead of the curve when he shows up in Raleigh next season.

“Before NC State even offered Bryce, I went and visited Coach Canada and Coach Faulkner to talk about formations, because I wanted to do things a different way.  I actually talked with them in the Spring about the formations that they use and how I could adopt them here at Green Hope,” said Coach Dixon. “In our new formations, Bryce actually will be playing the same position at NC State that he plays in our offense.  He will be familiar with what Coach Canada and Coach Faulkner are talking about when he gets there, because we have adopted the same terminology here.”

Bryce Dixon will put his versatility on display tonight, playing on both sides of the ball for the first time as a varsity player.  Go support Bryce tonight out at Heritage High School at 7pm.