Aragon: Brighton happy to be stuck with Bullett as coach

Brighton football coach Ryan Bullett was once told to burn in Hell.

The deplorable insult was shouted at him by one of the Bengals' own "fans" during his rookie year as Brighton's head coach in 2006. It was only one disturbing incident that involved Bullett in his early days and months as Brighton's coach. He didn't exactly receive a bunch of love and support from Bengal backers.

But now that Brighton football is back as a state contender, and especially after Friday night's stirring 21-10 win over two-time reigning 5A champion Alta, no one is directing any rage at Bullett.

"I'm excited," Bullett said. "There's a number of people that stood behind me the whole time. The administration always supported me. It was a rough start, and I started questioning what I was doing. I thought, 'Why am I doing this for lousy, less than a dollar an hour (pay)?"

Bullett took over for Tom Cushing when Cushing retired after leading the Bengals to a second-place finish in 2005. Almost immediately after he took the job, Bullett had to deal with adversity at the school. Football participation numbers went down, and other issues plagued the school.

Brighton went 4-6 in Bullett's first season, then won two games in both 2007 and 2008. The Bengals are 4-1 this season, blanked their first three opponents and are coming off of a huge win over Alta.

Bullett got a feeling things were going to be different with his program this year during the Christmas break. It was then when he informed his players that they would meet one morning during the break and volunteer at the Road Home homeless shelter. They would meet at the school and ride Trax downtown.

The Bengals met on a snowy Monday morning and proceeded to collect gifts from donors, stock the donated items in the warehouse and helped organize the place. To Bullett's amazement, 51 players showed up to donate their time to the project, which lasted about six hours.

"I remember telling one of my coaches on Trax, two or three years ago we wouldn't have had 10 kids show up," Bullett said. "I thought, 'Maybe this year will be a little different.'"

Bullett got other positive signs in the spring and summer when the Bengals took second in Bingham's statewide weightlifting competition and when they won the University of Utah's linemen challenge. Everyone knew Brighton was back when it dismantled state contender Davis 24-0, in Week 1.