The prospects and the coaches they’ll play for are the stars of National Signing Day.

But behind the scenes, especially for programs within the Power Five, player personnel and scouting specialists exist to make the marquee event on the recruiting calendar a reality. James Madison alum D.J. Bryant, a former All-American defensive end for the Dukes, is one of them.

Bryant is working his first signing day today as a recruiting assistant for Colorado, a member of the Pac-12.

“This will be the sixth signing day I’ve done, but this one is special because it’s on this level,” Bryant told the Daily News-Record. He took the job with the Buffaloes earlier this fall after two seasons with Towson in the role of defensive quality control coach. Bryant held the same quality-control responsibility with JMU during its run to the FCS national championship game in 2017, and prior to that he worked at Furman as the defensive ends coach.

“It’s going to be like Christmas for us,” Bryant said about the excitement Colorado’s staff has for National Signing Day, “and we’ll be adding some really good Buffs to the roster.”

The 2021 recruiting class is Colorado coach Karl Dorrell’s first at the school. He spent the better part of the last decade as an NFL assistant, which is how Dorrell is connected to Bryant. Upon the end of his college playing career, Bryant signed an undrafted free agent contract with the Houston Texans in 2012. Dorrell was the Texans’ quarterbacks coach then.

Now, Bryant’s day-to-day tasks involve aiding Dorrell and his on-field assistants in recruiting.

“It is a lot of evaluation of high schools kids,” Bryant said, “and just communicating with position coaches about guys who I think have the ability to play on this level and then also asking them about what our needs will be going into the next season. ‘What do we want to get better at? What do we want to add?’ Things like that.”

Because the NCAA barred any in-person recruiting since March due to the pandemic, the 2021 recruiting class, which begins inking letters of intent today, was largely evaluated via game film. And Bryant said the 2022 recruiting class, which he’s already assessing, is being constructed the same way.

Therefore, the early analysis and the judgments Bryant and others around the country in similar roles make will play a pivotal part in crafting college football rosters for the coming years.

Bryant said Colorado has a deep recruiting staff. His boss, Bob Lopez, is the Buffaloes’ director of player personnel and there are more staffers at Colorado that hold a title like Bryant’s.

“It’s not a one-man show when we’re putting these classes together,” Bryant said. “We communicate and try to do our due diligence, and I wouldn’t say we check each other’s work, but we say, ‘Hey, can you take a look at this kid also? I think he can play.’ And it’s just following the protocol we have here and that’s been so important during this pandemic, because it’s all about getting as many eyes as we can on a kid.”

Colorado enters today with 19 verbal commitments from 11 states, according to Rivals.com. Bryant, a Baltimore native with his previous coaching stops all on the east coast, said he’s studied to get up to speed on the high school programs in the west and the south that the Buffaloes have in their recruiting footprint.

“As I’ve settled in here at Colorado you realize that at the FCS level you’ve got to wear so many different hats,” he said. “You’re coaching a position and then also doing your own recruiting and evaluation. On this level, we have the luxury of people like me working to just evaluate kids and then communicating with those position coaches about kids who can fit the program and the culture we’re trying to build here.”

And so far, Dorrell and the Buffaloes have helped their own cause with interested prospects. Like at any place, winning allows for the brand to expand. Though the Pac-12 delayed the start of its season into November and is playing an abbreviated schedule, Colorado is 4-1 with wins over UCLA, Stanford, Arizona and San Diego State.

Bryant moved to Boulder, Colo., in October ahead of the season beginning, he said, and he’s enjoyed the transition other than being away from his family. But Bryant said his fiancé is planning for she and their son to join him there in the spring.

“Sometimes you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do in this profession,” he said. “But I will say the staff here is amazing and they help me a lot to be there, talk to me and collectively just be supportive. That’s the big thing, I think, when you move across the country. You’ve got to have that great support system back home, but also that same support system where you work.”