Colorado University Athletics
Tucker Adds Brendan Pyne As Graduate Transfer
December 20, 2019 | Football
BOULDER—Brendan Pyne, a graduate transfer from Brown University, will join the Colorado football team as a walk-on for the spring semester, head coach Mel Tucker announced Friday.
Pyne, listed as a 6-0, 205-pound linebacker, graduated from Brown University this month with a degree in History and will join the Buffs on January 13 for the start of the spring semester.
"He's a highly productive defensive player," CU coach Mel Tucker said. "He plays multiple positions; he could play inside linebacker or at our star position. I've known about him all the way back to his days at IMG, where he was a team captain. He'll come in and compete for playing time. We're very excited about him."
Pyne played for Brown from 2016-19 and has one season of eligibility remaining. He started the last three seasons and was the team's leading tackler as a senior. In his last three seasons at Brown, he accumulated 178 tackles (103 solo) with 14.5 for a loss and a sack. He added six pass breakups, three quarterback hurries and two forced fumbles.
He led the Ivy League as a junior with 48 solo tackles and his eight tackles for loss that season ranked 10th in the Ivy League. His career-best games were 14 tackles against Columbia as a junior and four tackles for loss against Penn that same season.
"I'm excited to go Colorado and to play for Mel Tucker," Pyne said. "I always dreamed of playing in the Power 5, and I decided to take a chance on myself. I'm looking forward to being the best teammate I can be and help win football games."
He attended IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., and in two seasons under coach Kevin Wright, helped IMG to an 18-1 record and top 10 national ranking each season. He was a team captain in 2015 when IMG went 9-0 and had 81 tackles, 10 for a loss, five pass breakups, two forced fumbles, and an interception. His junior season IMG was 10-1 and he had 75 tackles, six for a loss with 2.5 sacks and one pass breakup.
Off the field, he served as a teaching assistant at Brown for two Business Entrepreneurial classes and was a Digital Media Intern at the NBC Sports Group. He also interned for two years with the Sports Media Advisors Group where he constructed a marking overview on sports gambling and advised Duke Basketball on social media strategy. He also interned for Learfield while at Brown and he has also volunteered for the Special Olympics.
His family has a long tradition in the NFL and was the first family to have three generations play in the league. His great-grandfather George Pyne II played for the Providence Steam Rollers in 1931 after playing college football at Holy Cross. His grandfather George Pyne III played for the then Boston Patriots in 1965. His dad was in training camp for the New York Giants and is an influential businessman in the world of sports and in the National Football Foundation's Leadership Hall of Fame. His uncle, Jim Pyne, was an All-American at Virginia Tech and played for nine seasons with Tampa Bay, Detroit, Cleveland, and Philadelphia.
His other grandfather, Paul Harney, is in the PGA Golf Hall of Fame with 11 professional wins, playing from 1955-73. His younger brother, Drew, signed earlier this week with Notre Dame as a four-star prospect.
