Kelly Bryant: Possible Transfer Destinations

We’re about halfway done with the 2018 college football season, and I’m just as depressed as you are about it. There’s a lot of questions that need answers before we can truly look ahead to next season. Who is going to lose to Alabama in the National Championship? Will UCLA or Tennessee win the race to tank for the #1 overall draft pick? Does Syracuse have the best defensive line in college football history? Only time will tell, as fans all we can do is wait and enjoy the season while we have it.
However, there is one question we must, MUST, ask ASAP as possible: Where will Kelly Bryant play in 2019?

The following Monday after the game against Georgia Tech Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney told Bryant that true freshman phenom Trevor Lawrence would be taking over as starting quarterback. Within two days Bryant announced that he intended to transfer from Clemson for better playing opportunities. That’s pretty much all we’ve heard out of Bryant, and he probably won’t announce the new university he’ll attend until late this year or early 2019. But just because he’s been pretty tight lipped doesn’t mean we have to be.

Style of Play

First let’s talk about the kind of quarterback that Kelly Bryant is. Just looking at his statistics he threw for almost 3,000 yards as a junior in 2017. He also led Clemson in rushing attempts and rushed for over 600 yards. He also wasn’t putting up these numbers on a bad air raid team where they were losing every game, Clemson last season was pretty much the consensus number one team in the country going into the playoffs.

One criticism of Bryant is that he’s not the most accurate quarterback. I think it’s more appropriate to say he’s not the most consistently accurate, especially if he’s being compared to Deshaun Watson \ who Bryant replaced at Clemson. There are some throws that Bryant makes, however, that are jaw dropping (his touchdown throw against Texas A&M he fit the ball into about a 6-inch window.) According to Pro Football Focus, Bryant was actually the most accurate deep passer in the ACC in 2017, and I think he’s even improved upon that in 2018.

Bryant isn’t a running quarterback in the sense that he’s going to be his team’s number one option like Nick Fitzgerald at Mississippi State is, or Robert Griffin III was at Baylor. But if Bryant is one of two or three capable rushers, like he was at Clemson, that adds so much to an offense in terms of creative play calling and how much of the field they can threaten to attack on every play. One thing that Kelly can improve on is keeping his eyes downfield when he has pressure in his face. He has a tendency to tuck the ball and look to get up field instead of continuing to look for his receivers and running the scramble drill. Kelly is a talented runner, and again Clemson was one of the best teams in the country last season, so Bryant’s tendency to tuck the ball can’t exactly be considered crippling to an offense that averaged over thirty-one points a game. But keeping your eyes down field is one of those little things that can take your game from good to great. Considering the talent level of receiver that Bryant has had to throw to, and presumably will at the next school he plays at, trusting them to get open and having the patience to look downfield while avoiding pressure will take Bryant’s game from good to watch out good.

Transfer Destinations

As far as where Bryant could transfer there are a lot of variables to take into account. Bryant has to consider the quarterbacks already on the roster and in the next recruiting class, the offensive system the team runs, their ability to win right away, and its proximity to his home (South Carolina.) I wouldn’t exactly say Kelly Bryant and myself are close, so we don’t know how important each of those factors are going to be for him in deciding where he’ll play his last season of college football. However, there are a few schools that I think make the most sense for Bryant as transfer destinations.

Auburn Tigers

The last two times Auburn has played for a National Championship they’ve had transfers playing quarterback. It’s easy to forget that Cam Newton started at Florida and was on the team at the same time as Tim Tebow. Newton transferred to Blinn College in Texas for a year, then had one incredible season at Auburn. Nick Marshall, the quarterback for the 2013 Auburn team that played for the national championship, played defensive back at rival Georgia before transferring to Garden City Community College, and eventually to Auburn. Not to mention that current Auburn quarterback and NFL draft prospect Jarrett Stidham is a Baylor transfer.

Point being that Auburn might have as good a history as any school in the country with transfer quarterbacks. Gus Malzhan’s offensive system is a perfect fit for Kelly Bryant’s skill set. Malzhan’s offense is essentially a combination of the triple option and basketball on grass, and it’s the funnest offense to watch in the entire country. The tiger’s rushing attack allows for two or three players to theoretically get the ball on every play, not depending on the quarterback as a runner as much as other systems, but enough to utilize Bryant’s ability. Tiger receivers are usually either running quick hitting routes, such as screens or slants, that complement the run-pass option blocking scheme the lineman are running (RPO blocking schemes are a subject for another article, but BOY are they fascinating); or they are going to be running a deep route combination that allows the quarterback to take a shot \ downfield. There aren’t a lot of intermediate routes where the quarterback has to go through progressions to end up at the third or fourth read.

That’s something that Bryant has shown he can do, and I believe can do consistently with more reps. But everything I just wrote that Auburn does on offense is perfect for Bryant’s game. Auburn does have four-star quarterback Bo Nix who will be enrolling next season, and he’s pretty talented but he’s not Trevor Lawrence and if Bryant transferred there I don’t think that we’d see a similar QB battle that we saw this season at Clemson. Bryant at Auburn gives both parties their best chances at winning in 2019. Auburn makes the most sense for Bryant to transfer and play his last year of eligibility, and I don’t think it’s even close.

Arkansas Razorbacks

I know I just said that Auburn makes the most sense for Bryant to transfer too by a long shot, but for sake of the article there’s a few other schools that I could see Bryant ending up at.

Arkansas head coach Chad Morris was the offensive coordinator at Clemson when Bryant was being recruited and was actually the main recruiter for Bryant. After Morris left Clemson for the head coaching job at SMU, and currently Arkansas, Clemson continued to run a similar offense to what Morris ran at Clemson.

The main draw for Bryant to Arkansas would be playing for Morris (who was never actually his coach, but recruiters end up pretty close with the high school kids they recruit,) and not having to \ switch offensive systems.

Every recruiting class at Arkansas on the roster has been ranked in the top 30 nationally except for one, so talent isn’t an issue at Arkansas. Scoring more points than their opponent by the end of the game however has been a major issue at Arkansas recently. I don’t know if Bryant would want to play his last season of football where the ceiling is likely a mid-tier bowl game, but he’d be a great fit in that offense at least.

Oklahoma Sooners

Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley has been in charge for two seasons in Norman. His two quarterbacks have been most efficient quarterback of all time Heisman winner Baker Mayfield, and Kyler Murray, who is the best athlete in the entire country. Murray will be playing professional baseball for the Oakland Athletics next season, and right now Riley is lining up to replace him with the number one quarterback prospect in the 2019 class Spencer Rattler from Pinnacle, Arizona.

Unlike at Auburn, this would be a quarterback battle that Bryant might not want to sign up for. But if Bryant does come to Norman that would allow Riley to let Rattler sit a year and learn the offense while Bryant will most likely give a talented 2019 Sooners team their best shot at making the playoffs. It wouldn’t be a perfect match as far as offensive styles, but Riley is regarded as one of the most creative offensive minds in the entire country and would absolutely be able to tweak his offense to play to Bryant’s strengths.

Florida Gators

This has as much to do with Gator’s head coach Dan Mullen as anything else. The list of college quarterbacks that Mullen has coached includes: #1 overall NFL draft pick Alex Smith, Heisman winner and national champion Tim Tebow, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, and the SEC’s all-time quarterback rushing leader Nick Fitzgerald.

Current Florida quarterback Felipe Franks is only a sophomore, and four-star Jalon Jones will be on campus next season. Depth chart wise Gainesville might not be the best spot for Bryant, but if he can win the job and wants to play in the NFL, Dan Mullen might be the best coach for him next season.

North Carolina State Wolfpack

We see this in the NFL more often, but if an NFL team cuts a player we often see them sign with a division rival so they can get “revenge” twice a year. NC State head coach Dave Doeren, one of many to turn down the Tennessee job this off season, has quietly turned the Wolfpack into a solid program. They’ve recruited really well the last few years, they’ve had a solid NFL draft rate, and in 2018 I think they are the second-best team in the conference behind Clemson. The Wolfpack almost beat Clemson in 2017 (they haven’t played yet 2018.)

NC State runs more of a pro-style offense than what Bryant has run at Clemson. Transferring to NC State wouldn’t be as smooth of a transition schematically as some other schools on the list. But what the Wolfpack can offer is a guaranteed game against Clemson, as well as an offense more suited for the NFL.

Prediction

Bryant hasn’t been public about where he’ll transfer too, and any speculation (including this one) is nothing more than speculation. That being said, I think Bryant ends up at Auburn next season, and if he does end up playing for Auburn I’ll be watching every Auburn Tigers game because I can’t think of any team that would be funner to watch.