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Looking Back on How Dabo Swinney Truly Screwed Kelly Bryant at Clemson

By Carter Owen

Former Clemson and Missouri quarterback Kelly Bryant
Former Clemson and Missouri quarterback Kelly Bryant / Mike Comer/Getty Images

The date is January 1, 2018. Kelly Bryant is at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, gearing up to face Alabama in the College Football Playoff Semifinal. After sitting behind Deshaun Watson a year earlier, Bryant got his chance to take Clemson to the national championship game.

Instead, the Crimson Tide dominated, beating Bryant and the Tigers 24-6. From there, it has been all downhill for Bryant. Dabo Swinney chose to move forward with Trevor Lawrence at quarterback instead of Bryant just a few games into the 2018 season, and Bryant then announced his intentions to transfer. He played his final college season at Missouri before going uselected in the 2020 NFL Draft. He has yet to be signed by a team in free agency as of this writing.

He accounted for 16 touchdowns and six interceptions as Missouri went 6-6 last season. You can't exactly fault Swinney for wanting to roll with Lawrence, who was an all-world prospect with a higher ceiling quarterback than Bryant, but the whole situation just stinks.

Bryant, after all, was the starting QB on a team that ransacked the ACC and was one win away from playing for a second consecutive national championship. Quite simply, he deserved better. And with that in mind, Swinney did play an unavoidable role in the QB's downfall.

So, what should Swinney have done differently? Look no further than how Alabama managed things with Jalen Hurts once Tua Tagovailoa definitively took over as the No. 1 quarterback. Nick Saban made sure to keep Hurts in the right frame of mind and remind him how important he still was to the team; right on cue, he came up big in the 2018 SEC Championship for the Crimson Tide when Tagovailoa got hurt.

Swinney did no such thing with Bryant, and the rest is history.

While he is continuing to stay positive, the XFL is no longer an option and teams are seemingly uninterested in signing him. His football career looks to be coming to a close and it all started at Clemson, with Dabo Swinney.