PISCATAWAY, N.J. – There have been a lot of changes in Bryan Felter's life this past year. On April 12, he married his wife, Christina. The two are expecting their first child, a daughter, in the spring. And after missing the majority of last season with an injury, he made the decision to return to Rutgers for one more season.

Felter leads all active RU players with 50 career games played and is set for his 27th career start on Saturday against No. 8 Oregon. He is a four-time Academic All-Big Ten selection and a 2023 honorable mention All-Big Ten honoree by the media. There is no secret sauce to Felter's success and legacy as he enters the final stretch of his collegiate career. It is the culmination of over a decade of early mornings, long bus rides, new experiences and most importantly: hard work.

Felter grew up in the quiet Union County suburb of Westfield, a town where most kids find themselves on the soccer and lacrosse fields rather than the gridiron. But Felter was given the freedom to explore all sports as a kid. From a young age, he was involved in just about every sport imaginable – from soccer, baseball, football and lacrosse to gymnastics and wrestling.

Following in the footsteps of his older brother, Felter chose football. His decision led him to Bergen Catholic, one of the top parochial schools in the state, but the journey was not easy.

His days started with a 6 a.m. car ride to the ShopRite in Clark, New Jersey, which was the first stop for a school bus that made just three stops on the way up to Oradell. The bus would pick up Felter and other local students before making stops at a Parkway rest stop in Union and a Dunkin' Donuts in Bloomfield on the way to Bergen Catholic.

"If we left on time, we would make it in, 45 or 50 minutes," Felter said of the commute. "If someone was late to the bus, it would take us an hour and 45 minutes."

But those were just the beginning of the days. With school and football practice and a long commute back down the Parkway, Felter was usually home around 8:30 p.m.

These late nights meant there was no time to waste. Felter would do as much homework as he could on the bus home while remaining in constant contact with his mom, who would make sure dinner was always waiting when he got home. Thankfully, he picked up plenty of real-life skills in those first two years of high school.

"It was fun to say the least," Felter said. "You had to focus on time management, that was the biggest thing. I learned that freshman year, because you don't have all this free time that someone going to my high school in my town would. So, you have to do homework on the bus. You do homework on the way home."

Those lessons prepared Felter for college, where he was able to come in and make an immediate impact as a Scarlet Knight. In his freshman season in 2020, Felter played in eight games with six starts on the offensive line, which was the most starts by a Rutgers true freshman offensive lineman since Kaleb Johnson in 2011.

While not every player that comes to campus has the time management skills that Felter was forced to have as a 15-year-old, he has taken his role as a leader to help his teammates get there.

"It's not easy. I'll tell recruits coming here that it's not easy. If you want to be the best you can possibly be, and be coached by coaches who care about you, then it's the place for you," he said. "It's a hard, hard work place where you have to be able to put your head down and go to work every single day, because every day is not easy."

So as Felter prepares for life after college – no matter where it takes him – he will be prepared. From early mornings at the Clark ShopRite, late nights at the Bergen Catholic practice fields, six years as a Scarlet Knight, being a husband, impending parenthood and more – a lifetime of hard work has prepared Felter for whatever lies ahead.



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