By Roscoe Nance
The 2019 football season was a storybook one for Florida A&M quarterback Ryan Stanley. It ended with Stanley holding virtually every Rattlers passing record in the books and leading his team to its first national ranking since 2009 with a 9-2 record.
It ended in storybook fashion as well, as the redshirt senior was named the MEAC Offensive Player Of The Year. Stanley received the award on Tuesday, Dec. 10 at the 62nd annual National Football Foundation & College Football Hall of Fame press conference in New York.
“This is an honor and a blessing, especially when you consider others who won it,” Stanley said. “I’m blessed.”
Stanley made MEAC Player of the Year one of his goals during the MEAC Media Day event in Norfolk, Va., in July. A conference representative made a presentation to the student-athletes who participated in Media Day about the award and laid out details of the recipient’s trip to New York. Stanley thought the trip would be nice and he set his sights on earning it.
“My goal was to dominate the MEAC,” he said. “We made it happen.”
Stanley threw for 2,566 yards and 23 touchdowns to lead the conference in both categories. He also led the conference in passing efficiency with a 146.6 rating and total offense with 261.9 yards a game. All were career bests and he was named First Team All-MEAC.
It was the third time he has been named to the all-conference teams.
Second-year Florida A&M coach Willie Simmons says he expected Stanley to have the kind of season that he did.
“I always thought Ryan had elite talent from the moment we set foot on campus and started spring practice,” Simmons said. “We saw his arm talent, his size, his athleticism. From a physical standpoint, he’s one of the best I’ve coached. Once you throw in the mental part of it, his ability to pick up an offense, know where everyone is on the field, know what defenses are trying to do, we knew he had all the measurables to be an elite football player It was just a matter of him learning the offense frontward and backward like he did this year and playing good football each week. That’s what he did, and that’s why he was able to have the season that he did.”
Stanley says making better decisions, which in turn led to fewer turnovers, and becoming a better leader led to this spectacular 2019 season. He threw 13 interceptions last season. He cut that number to seven this season.
“It was a matter of being smart with the ball and learning to not care what people said,” Stanley said. “Early in my career, people’s opinions mattered to me. I went on to realize I’m doing this for myself. Forget what people on the outside think, as long as the guys in locker room liked me.”
The chatter that was directed toward Stanley early in his career – mostly on social media – when he made a bad play caused him to try harder and sometimes led to more bad plays.
“His decision making improved tremendously, just from the standpoint of trusting the system and the taking what the defense gave him,” Simmons said. “He was maybe trying to do too much and putting too much on his shoulders to win games. This year, he understood he had really good football players around him. All he to do was get the football to them. He also had the best punter in the nation, and he also had a strong defense behind him, so punting the football and putting the defense field wasn’t such a bad option.”
Stanley gives Simmons the lion’s share of the credit for his improved leadership skills, which were on display he guided the Rattlers to last-minute victories against Southern and South Carolina State.
“It starts with Coach Simmons,” Stanley said. “He’s a great leader. He told me there are different kinds of leaders. There are guys like Drew Brees who are vocal, and there are guys like Tom Brady. He said just be you and the guys will love you for who you are. I’m more of a leader by example and more vocal if I need to be. I’m not the type to chew a guy out if he drops the ball. I’ll tell him we need that play and bring him up spiritually. I’ll tell him I’ll have another opportunity to come to you, but we need you to make the plays. I’m not the type to beat you into the ground after a play. I’ll call a guy out if he’s missing workouts, but I’m a leader by example type.”
Stanley’s career at Florida A&M ended in dream fashion, but it got off to a nightmarish start. He redshirted his freshman year as the Rattlers put together a 1-10 record. Even though he wasn’t actively involved in the losing, it gnawed at him and motivated him to become the player that he is today.
“Being a redshirt, it was real frustrating knowing I couldn’t do anything sand coming in the locker room week after with a loss,” he said. “Week after week coming in the locker sad, divided, negative and everybody down. I never wanted that feeling again.”