USA TODAY International Edition
BRYANT CALMLY LEADS CLEMSON TO 3-0 START
Quarterback shows poise and versatility
LOUISVILLE Asked after Clemson’s win against Louisville what makes him nervous, Kelly Bryant struggled to find an answer. Was it snakes? Spiders? Making your first road start in a hostile environment, with the reigning Heisman Trophy winner on the opposite sideline and more than 50,000 fans rooting for the team in black, not orange?
Nope. “Interviews,” Bryant said. But then a reporter commented on his blue suit and another asked who made it, and then Bryant pulled back the inside to show the label but instead revealed a packet of sour candy hidden in the breast pocket, and then — well, interviews aren’t so bad, he learned.
If nothing else, Bryant has been a quick study. As a true freshman and sophomore he held the clipboard for Deshaun Watson, the best player regardless of position in program history, and soaked up like a sponge every ounce of knowledge he could from his former teammate’s approach. How to prepare, how to plan, how to handle adversity.
“I’m just trying not to do too much, just trying to keep the main thing the main thing,” Bryant said. “Just trying to settle in and let the game come to me. Just take a deep breath.”
As a rising junior last spring he quickly adapted to the flow of competition. Thrust into a threeman race to replace Watson — even if, as the incumbent backup, he was by far the most experienced of the Tigers’ options — Bryant moved ahead of Zerrick Cooper and Hunter Johnson by the end of drills. By the time the offense returned to the practice field in August, the job was his, if not yet officially confirmed by Dabo Swinney.
And after the third start of his career, Bryant will learn about managing the publicity that comes with being the starting quarterback for perhaps the nation’s best team. Comparisons will be made to his predecessor under center. It doesn’t help that Watson, asked on Twitter during Saturday’s win whether Bryant can be as good as he was at Clemson, responded by saying, “He will be better than me.”
Let’s not go too far. Watson’s legacy at Clemson can’t be summed up in a sentence. Bryant’s story has yet to be written. But the question was asked from January through September: How will the Tigers replace Deshaun Watson? The answer is quite well, thank you, with a junior who will not match Watson’s overall impact but eventually might lead the Tigers to the same destination — dancing at midfield underneath a shower of confetti in celebration of another national championship.
“He’s put the work in. He put in his time. He’s learned; he’s paid attention,” Swinney said. “You forget that this is a developmental sport. Guys improve; guys get better. Maturity matters. He just worked his butt off this summer. And what y’all are seeing is what we saw in camp.”
What has impressed his teammates and coaches most is the calmness. The catch-all term is poise, meaning the ability to shrug off pressure, but it’s easy to be poised surrounded by Clemson’s overall talent level. Bryant is calm, even, always at medium, coaches said Saturday, and that trickles through the huddle. It’s a
defining characteristic, and one he shares with Watson.
“Kelly has the perfect demeanor for a quarterback,” co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliott said. “He doesn’t get too high; he doesn’t get too low.”
That comparison will die a hard death. If the first, Bryant won’t be the last Clemson quarterback to be placed in contrast. Even if he does lead the Tigers to another national championship, the pecking order won’t budge an inch: Watson first, then anyone else. But winning at Louisville answers one question — whether Bryant can get it done — and asks another: What is his ceiling?
“Every week I’m learning something new about him, just like y’all,” Swinney said.
His first three starts help to paint the picture of a quarterback who can lead the Tigers to the top of the Atlantic Coast Conference. That might be an understatement. The team success and numbers, including a breakout performance Saturday, might even put wind into the sails of a budding Heisman Trophy campaign. That he outplayed Lamar Jackson — and that might be another
understatement — should send shock waves through the rest of the ACC, if not the entire Football Bowl Subdivision. Once a potential weak link, the Tigers’ quarterback position is now a clear asset.
“Just let them sleep on me,” Bryant said. “I’ve always been doubted, pretty much my whole career, so let them keep doubting.”
Clemson calls itself a new team with the same dream, that of repeating as national champion. The Tigers also know the path can’t and won’t be the same. They’ll have to be different, to improvise, to adapt to new positives, new negatives and new challenges.
No single player embodies Clemson’s new look like its quarterback, who might have Watson as a “big brother and mentor,” as Bryant said Saturday, but realizes he’ll have to blaze his own trail to be successful.
“He understands his game,” Elliott said. “He sat behind Deshaun and he knows that trying to emulate Deshaun is not going to be successful for him. He has to play within his game.”
That game might be described as dual threat, with the ability to punish teams downfield — Bryant flummoxed Louisville with a series of sideline throws and deep heaves — and the toughness to grind out yards between the tackles. That does sound familiar. Watson did it; now Bryant does it, too.
But this is a different team with a different quarterback. Bryant isn’t Watson, but few, if any, really are. He’s just Kelly Bryant.
Saturday proved that being Bryant is enough in theory to lift Clemson back to the top of college football. We’ll see how that story unfolds. The first chapter has the Tigers feeling optimistic.
“I was hoping he would take what I’d seen in practice to the opening game and I was hoping that he would respond to some adversity, which we knew would come, like I’d seen him respond to our defense,” Swinney said. “I didn’t know. Hoped he would.
“And I was hoping he would man up on the road and lead these guys like a dang competitor and a confident dude. And he did. I’m just really proud of him. It’s awesome.”