Not quite three weeks ago, Kelly Bryant was Clemson’s obvious choice in a dire situation. A game hung in the balance. On the road, at night, against an energetic underdog accompanied by 100,000 revved-up fans, Dabo Swinney went with the veteran quarterback. Bryant rewarded the choice with steady leadership that allowed Clemson to leave Texas A&M with a two-point victory.
Today, Bryant is leaving Clemson.
“I feel like it’s best for me and my future,” Bryant told The Greenville News, first to report the story.
Swinney believes starting Trevor Lawrence is what’s best for Clemson and its future. And let’s be clear: There are no bad guys here.
Bryant is 16-2 as a starter. He led the Tigers to the College Football Playoff last year. But this is the weird reality:
Clemson probably does not win Sept. 8 in College Station without Bryant. But Clemson’s best shot to win a national championship probably comes with Lawrence.
And if it means the Tigers will move on without Bryant, well, only the timing is strange.
Quarterbacks transferring after they’ve lost a competition – in this case, after they’ve been supplanted – is a long-established tradition in college football. What’s different is the NCAA’s new redshirt rule, which allows players to participate in four games without losing a season of eligibility. Among its consequences is the ability for players to decide after four games they’d like to shut it down and transfer away.
We’ve seen it happen this week at several schools, veteran players evaluating their situations and deciding it’s time to go. Until Bryant’s announcement, the most prominent was Oklahoma State wide receiver Jalen McCleskey, but there will be more – maybe this year, but certainly in the future. It’s going to become a new facet of the college football calendar – Week 5: Who’s redshirting? Who’s transferring?
Players like Bryant, who have already graduated, can combine the redshirt rule with the graduate transfer rule. He has the option to play in four games, then transfer and play immediately the next season at another school. If he had taken a snap against Syracuse on Saturday or any other opponent the rest of the season, he would have burned his final season of eligibility; transferring and playing next season would no longer be an option.
In his interview with The Greenville News, Bryant took a parting shot at Swinney’s decision, saying: “I feel like I haven’t done anything not to be the starter. I’ve been here. I’ve waited my turn. I’ve done everything y’all have asked me to do, plus more. I’ve never been a distraction. I’ve never been in trouble with anything. To me, it was kind of a slap in the face.”
He also said he didn’t feel he’d “gotten a fair shot,” which is odd. After waiting his turn behind Deshaun Watson – arguably the best player in school history, who led Clemson to a national championship – Bryant won the competition to replace Watson a year ago, then started all those games last season and the first four this season. Bryant has been solid on and off the field. But it’s not about loyalty. It’s about playing the best guy.
Asked during the ACC teleconference Wednesday about Bryant’s comments, Swinney complimented Bryant as “one of the best young people I’ve ever been around,” but said he’d given Bryant a fair shot and that he’d been “open, honest and transparent as possible with Kelly.”
“This isn’t middle school,” Swinney added. “There’s tough decisions that have to be made at this level and you have to do what’s best for the team.”
While Bryant is right in saying he hasn’t done anything not to be the starter, Lawrence has shown exactly why he should be. The true freshman, who was ranked as the nation’s top overall recruit by 247Sports and Rivals, enrolled last January. His spectacular skill set was immediately evident during Swinney’s quarterback rotation the first four weeks.
And although Swinney went with the veteran against Texas A&M, Lawrence’s development has been rapid. Last week in a 49-21 victory against Georgia Tech, his physical talent was on full display – and so was a developing poise. The freshman’s potential seems very high, and Clemson’s seems higher with him than with Bryant.
But Swinney’s hope was also that the quarterback rotation would continue, just with reversed roles: Lawrence as the starter – and presumably the guy in crunch times from now on – with Bryant getting time and available if Lawrence faltered.
“We’re very fortunate to have two guys who can play because one of them is going to be hot,” Swinney told reporters Tuesday. “The chances of both being cold are probably not real good.”
Now, without Bryant on the roster, Clemson is all-in with a true freshman. The Tigers cannot afford a cold snap from Lawrence. But there’s a reason two-quarterback systems, especially the way Clemson was doing it for the first four games, are extremely rare.
Bryant’s case differs from Alabama, where Jalen Hurts has given way to Tua Tagovailoa and shows no indications he’ll redshirt or transfer, in one important way: Hurts, expected to graduate in December, is a junior. He can continue to play the remainder of the season as a backup, and would still have one more year of eligibility remaining if he decided to transfer after the season.
For Bryant, a senior, this is it. The choice had to be made right now. As he moves out, and as Clemson moves on without him, it’s time to recognize this much: Whether it’s the best move, it’s college football’s new reality.
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