A lot of Bryan London’s career has felt like a dream come true.

Driving down I-35 with his mother and seeing his face displayed as a literal poster-child for Texas State just added to the surrealism.

The senior captain was actually asleep in the passenger seat and missed seeing it the first time, so his mother turned the car around so he could get a glimpse himself. He didn’t even know it was going up.

“That’s something you just always dream about,” London said. “To just see it, it never gets old every time I see it.”

It’s been a long way for the senior linebacker who only had one collegiate offer coming out of 3A Universal City Randolph with only 70 kids in his graduating class to becoming the state’s top linebacker and one of the nation’s leading tacklers over the last three seasons.

During that first season, London was part of a defense that was much-maligned. Texas State fielded arguably the worst defense in college football allowing 42 points per game and a 98.25 red zone percentage. They were young, inexperienced and often overmatched. Now, four years later, the defense is the calling card of the program and could be one of the best in Group of Five in 2019 thanks in no small part to London’s consistency and leadership.

“Those were tough times,” London laughed. “You just appreciate (the improvement). Even when we come out and we’re not executing as well as we want to, it’s just knowing that we have a chance in every game. We don’t feel out of place now.”

In his last season, London’s sights are set on something he’s grown tired of watching from home every Christmas break – bowl season.

“I want to do everything in my power to return even just a little bit of what this university has meant to me,” London said.

Adjusting to a new staff and system isn’t foreign to London. He’s had five defensive coordinators in five years. Transition is almost all he’s known.

“Whenever you have change, you meet somebody new there’s always that awkward moment,” defensive coordinator Zac Spavital said. “But now his personality’s coming out and his leadership is coming out and he wants this defense to be great and wants this defense to win games here for this university.”