A year ago Denodus O'Bryant had to watch his teammates fall to Carroll College in the NAIA National Semifinals as he redshirted his first year at Lindenwood. A year later, instead of watching his teammates play against Carroll, he was right in the middle of all the action. O'Bryant would help his team to a 42-35 victory with two rushing and one receiving touchdown.

“This year was very different for me because I didn't want to let the seniors go out on a loss,” O'Bryant said. “We wanted to get to the national championship and we talked about it from the beginning of the year so it was nice to help the seniors get to the championship.”

Not only did O'Bryant help his team to the program's first ever national championship game, he became the school's single season leader in touchdowns scored in a season, was named to the HAAC first team and was the league's MVP.

It all started for the redshirt freshman from Washington, Missouri in the first game of the season when O'Bryant was making his first collegiate start against Evangel and burst onto the scene with a 126 yard, two touchdown game.

“I wasn't really sure what the speed of the game was going to be like,” O'Bryant said. “Going through practices I really wondered how fast it would be because I could barely outrun my own team. I just didn't know if the teams were as fast as we were. When I broke the long run I thought well I guess my speed will be good enough.”

The two touchdown game was just the beginning of what was a record breaking season. O'Bryant would score 21 more touchdowns on the year and would break DeDe Dorsey's school record for touchdowns in a season. But breaking records and receiving all the accolades is something that he didn't want to talk about.

“The records to me are something that just happened and we all had a good year,” O'Bryant said. “The only record I really want in the end is the perfect season.”

O'Bryant has been compared to Dorsey since the first time he scored and head coach Patrick Ross sees a lot of similarities between O'Bryant and Dorsey.

“The two of them are very similar, they both use their speed as their biggest asset to make plays. They both don't look like big running backs but they have really strong hips so when you think you're going to tackle if you don't wrap up, your not brining them down,” Ross said. “Their personalities are a lot alike too as their both nice kids and happy to be around college football and don't need the limelight and just happy to be around the team.”

When looking at O'Bryant's numbers, it is phenomenal how he can light up the stat book with the limited number of carries he has gotten. Due to a couple of injuries during the season and the coaches limiting his carries to keep him fresh, he averaged just 7.4 carries a game during the regular season.

“Denodus is a special player and we have made sure to use him wisely,” Ross said. “We limited his touches throughout the year because he is going to have a long career. What separates him from others is his speed and you can't prepare for that.”

When HAAC defensive coordinators watched film on the Lions the first thing that jumped out to them was that speed that Coach Ross talks about.

“I was very impressed with Denodus. I did not see a lot of film on him because we played Lindenwood in week two, but after seeing him in person I was very surprised he was at our level,” said Central Methodist's defensive coordinator Jody Ford, who's defense surrendered 119 yards to O'Bryant on just FOUR carries. “I felt he should be a Division I back and feel he may be one of the few guys in our league who could get drafted. Some Division I coach really missed out on him. Lindenwood is fortunate to have him.”

It has not only been in the running game that O'Bryant has made an impact. Just take a look at the video game type numbers he has piled up on special teams; four kickoff returns for touchdowns (one short of NAIA record) in only 11 attempts and is averaging 44.6 yards every time he touches it on kicks. Teams have repeatedly just kick the ball out of bounds or short to keep it out of his hands.

“Special teams are getting to the point where they are boring,” O'Bryant said. “Teams will just kick the ball short but the coaches put us in good position to take the short kicks and give the team good field position. But I definitely like the 95 yard kickoff return for a touchdown more than 30 yard run from scrimmage.”

For fans of Lindenwood football, the name Denodus O'Bryant has already become a household name and you can bet that every person in the NAIA and in the country will know his name before he leaves Lindenwood….. in THREE years.