Chad Ryland

Early life

Ryland was born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. He attended Cedar Crest High School but initially only played soccer and baseball. He was convinced to tryout for the football team as a junior by his father. He made the team and in both years was named an all-league and all-county selection at placekicker. To train, he and his father often snuck onto the school's athletic field after it was closed, and when they sometimes were told to leave, they briefly left, but then returned and Ryland continued practicing. He was ranked a five-star kicker and the 24th-best nationally at the position by Kohl's kicking camps.

College career

Ryland was a walk-on at Eastern Michigan, and won the starting job as a true freshman. In his second game, he made the most memorable kick of his career: a game-winning 24-yard field goal as time expired to upset heavy favorite Purdue 20–19. Although he had a good performance to start the year, his play declined over the course of the season, and he finished having made only 12-of-20 field goal attempts, although Ryland did successfully convert all 41 PATs.

As a sophomore at Eastern Michigan in 2019, Ryland appeared in all 13 games and made 35 PATs, additionally making 14-of-19 field goal tries. Against Illinois, he converted a 24-yard game-winning field goal attempt in the final seconds. He was a second-team all-conference choice after the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, in which he ranked top-20 nationally with a field goal percentage of 84.6, converting 11-of-13 attempts. The following year, Ryland set a team record with 104 points in a season after making 19-of-22 field goals and all 47 of his attempted PATs.

Ryland transferred to Maryland in 2022, finishing his stint at Eastern Michigan as their all-time leading scorer with 309 points. In his only season at Maryland, he appeared in every game and was named second-team all-conference after converting 19-of-23 field goal attempts, including being 3-for-6 on attempts of over 50 yards.