Ryan Dickens beamed for the crowd Sunday night, his mind racing over all he had accomplished and the future he was ready to tackle.

The 6-foot-2, 210-pound senior linebacker from Raritan High School had just been honored with a 2016 Mini Max Award for his football excellence, strong academics and devotion to community service, which includes roles in teen suicide prevention, breast cancer awareness and fundraisers for families in crisis.

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Dickens also had his most important decision locked up, having verbally committed seven months earlier to accept a scholarship offer to play football for the University of Connecticut. He wore UConn T-shirts to school, chatted in group text messages with other UConn recruits and had already planned to major in business. Now, he was only 17 days from signing his name to a National Letter of Intent and making his dreams official.

Or so he thought.

Dickens’ cell phone rang while he and his parents, Matt and Patti, were still in the parking lot of the awards banquet in Princeton Junction Sunday night. UConn coach Randy Edsall was on the other end. Ryan Dickens excitedly answered the phone, but in an instant his world was shattered.

Edsall was calling to tell Dickens the unthinkable: The school no longer had a scholarship for him.

“And the next thing you hear is Ryan’s like, ‘You’re kidding, right?’” Patti Dickens said. “And then he put the phone on speaker and Edsall said, ‘No, Ry, we just decided we’re going to go in another direction. We don’t have a spot for you.’”

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The phone call destroyed seven months of meticulous planning by Dickens, 17, and served as another reminder of the cutthroat world of college football recruiting, where dreams can be made and broken in an instant. Scholarship offers extended by colleges are non-binding agreements — the same as verbal commitments from players. That means schools and athletes have the power to renege on offers and commitments without penalty all the way up until the time National Letters of Intent are signed and faxed into colleges.

Seemingly every winter players such as Dickens are on the wrong end of a college's decision, left empty-handed and uncertain in the eleventh hour as National Signing Day bears down.

“The kid’s world went into disarray,” Raritan coach Anthony Petruzzi said. “We’re just trying to pick up the ashes right now and find the best way to move forward.”

UConn’s decision to pull Dickens’ scholarship was a gut-punch for several reasons, including the timing, his parents said. Dickens had originally committed to UConn and head coach Bob Diaco in June of 2016, effectively shutting down his recruiting process and prompting him to refuse overtures from other schools.

UConn fired Diaco in late December and hired Edsall — who had previously served as head coach of the Huskies from 1999 to 2010 — on Dec. 28. Dickens worried about his scholarship offer, but Edsall called on New Year’s Day to assure Dickens the school still wanted him and his scholarship was safe, his parents said.

UConn linebackers coach Jon Wholley even met with Dickens at Raritan Thursday to talk about signing day and his upcoming visit to UConn on Jan. 20, Dickens' 18th birthday.

Three days later, the scholarship was gone.

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Petruzzi said had they known sooner about UConn's decision they would have had more time to come up with Plan B. Just last week Dickens rebuffed a last-minute inquiry from Monmouth, informing the school he was sticking to his commitment to UConn and the new coaching regime, Petruzzi said. When the Dickens camp scrambled to ask if Monmouth still had interest Monday, the school had already offered his spot to another player, Petruzzi added.

Dickens finally got some good news early Tuesday morning: Rhode Island, a Football Championship Subdivision school, offered him a scholarship. Dickens will weigh his options as signing day approaches Feb. 1.

“This is a great kid who does everything right,” Patti Dickens said. “He’s an honor-roll student. He runs a charity. He’s in a suicide prevention leadership role. He plays football at a top level. Like, everything right. And this guy broke him. It just blows my mind that a guy can take the wind out of your sails just with no regret. Nothing.”

It's not the first time Edsall has been linked to pulling a scholarship offer late in the game. In January of 2013, when Edsall was head coach at Maryland, the school rescinded an offer to Demetri McGill of Ocean Lakes High in Virginia Beach three weeks before signing day. Chris Scott, McGill's high school coach, called the move "sad and disappointing" in a story at the time on ultimaterecruit.com.

UConn football did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday night.

Petruzzi still was fuming Monday as he discussed UConn's decision. Dickens was an all-state player who racked up more than 300 tackles as a three-year starter and led Raritan to a state title in 2015. He also has a 3.9 grade-point average, competes on the wrestling team and is actively involved in several charities, including the RAINE Foundation, which his family founded and provides food, clothing and other necessities for families in crisis.

The coach has been working the phones nonstop since Sunday night, contacting colleges who might have interest in Dickens now that he's available. They have 15 days before singing day.

“Ryan stuck by them through their turmoil and their regime change, and now in a crucial moment they’ve decided to let him go,” Petruzzi said. “He’s having a hard time right now realizing that the last seven months of preparation is not going to see itself out. He’s devastated. But he’s a tough kid. He got knocked down today but he’s going to get up tomorrow and realize his dream."

Matthew Stanmyre may be reached at mstanmyre@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattStanmyre. Find NJ.com on Facebook.