Dabo Swinney has a very simple explanation for why Kelly Bryant won’t be receiving a ring for Clemson winning the national championship last season: Bryant left the program.
Bryant played four games at Clemson last season and split the quarterback reps with true freshman Trevor Lawrence pretty evenly. After four games, Lawrence had proven that the team was far better off with him at quarterback than with Bryant. Bryant had spent the beginning of his career at Clemson behind Deshaun Watson and was understandably upset to lose the job as a senior, so he ended up quitting the team. After Lawrence got hurt, Swinney said he would welcome Bryant back to the team, but the quarterback stuck to his plans to go elsewhere.
Bryant eventually transferred to Missouri as a graduate so that he would be eligible to play this fall.
Swinney told ESPN’s Chris Low why Bryant wasn’t getting a championship ring.
“He wasn’t on the team. You’ve gotta be on the team to get a ring,” Swinney told ESPN. “I love Kelly and appreciate what he did for us, but he decided to move on.”
Bryant told ESPN that he would accept a ring if offered by Clemson, but Swinney is not offering one.
In other sports, players who play a partial season with an eventual champion often get rings even if they are traded elsewhere or demoted. But this case is different, because Bryant quit and left.
Do you think Bryant should still get a ring for being a part of the program and helping the team win its first four games, even though he eventually quit?
