If you see Bryan Gasser walking around the University of Toledo campus with dark circles under his eyes, don't give him a hard time.

Bryan Gasser

Chances are the Rockets' first-year football graduate assistant has been up all night looking at game film.

“It's a lot of hours, morning and night,” said Gasser, 26, a native of Northwood. “I've slept at the office a few times.”

Gasser, who played played football, basketball and track before graduating from Cardinal Stritch High School in 2002, was a standout tight end at Ohio Northern University. As a 6-foot-3, 225-pound senior in 2005, he earned All-Ohio Athletic Conference and OAC all-academic honors.

Gasser served as an assistant coach for the Polar Bears from 2006-08, working with tight ends and running backs. He earned a B.S. in business administration at ONU in 2006 and then earned a master's degree in sports administration from Bowling Green State University in 2010.

Last season, Gasser went back to high school – as the offensive line/special teams coach at Otsego. Now he's back in the big time.

Last summer, Toledo football coach Tim Beckman hired Gasser as a graduate assistant. His primary job is breaking down film of the Rockets and their upcoming opponent, and he also helps coach UT's offensive line.

“Bryan has been a definite asset to our offensive staff's success,” Beckman said. “He has all the characteristics of being a great coach.”

Gasser's position with the UT football program came about purely by happenstance.

“It was kind of strange how it came about,” he said. “I was just finishing at Bowling Green and I was commuting from home. The offensive coordinator here, Matt Campbell, played at Mount Union College with the offensive coordinator I played with a Ohio Northern, Bill Rychel. I was talking with Bill, who is the offensive coordinator at Notre Dame College in Ohio. He said, 'Get in touch with Matt and see if they have anything there and you can volunteer.'

“I got in touch with Matt as he was getting done with recruiting in the spring. He said if I'd like to help out and kind of volunteer in the summer, they had a lot of individual and team camps in June. I said I'd love to be involved. I came up and volunteered a couple days a week and on weekends.”

The Rockets' previous graduate assistant left UT to take a coaching position at St. John's Jesuit, opening up a spot for Gasser. He got the call in mid-July.

“They asked me if I wanted the position,” Gasser said. “I was just graduating from Bowling Green and it was a good fit. I had a background coaching football and I liked what they were doing offensively and I knew it would be a great opportunity and a great learning experience. It was a pretty seamless transition for me.”

Gasser gets to spend hours upon hours in UT's film room – so many hours, in fact, that he's embarrassed to tell anyone just how many.

“I do a lot of video breakdown, preparing for our upcoming opponents,” Gasser said. “I do a lot of self-scouting of our offense. I'll look at what we've called, what formations we lined up in week to week and how we do them on down and distance to see if we have any tendencies we need to adjust to going into each week. I need to know what are other teams are saying about us or seeing from us each week.

“I also break down our opponents and look through all of their games, kind of take from them what we feel our formations might be that other teams have run against them and look for their tendencies.”

The job of a graduate assistant is a thankless one, to be sure, but Gasser said he wouldn't give up his current gig for anything. His father, Jim, has been an assistant varsity boys’ basketball coach at Stritch since 2006.

“Right now I kind of enjoy learning offenses,” Gasser said. “I aspire to be an offensive ccoordinator. After I do that a little bit, I'll see about the head coaching idea. Right now I like the idea of moving toward an offensive coordinator position, and from there we'll see.

“I do feel confident that when the right situation presents itself for me to move into a head coaching role, I'll be prepared. I've gotten a chance to learn from two successful head coaches in Dean Paul (ONU) and Tim Beckman.”

In addition to his football duties at UT, Gasser is also working on a second master's degree, in educational technology. He said he isn't sure where he'll be five years from now.

“I kind of take the same appproach that we talk to our players about,” Gasser said. “Look at the present and focus on what we have right now. Hopefully, if I continue to do the things I need to do on a week-to-week or year-to-year basis, I'll go and do something I enjoy.

“I try not to look too far into the future. There's a lot for me to do right now. I don't have time to look ahead.”

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