Clemson football commit Bryant Wesco scores 3 TDs, including massive punt return: Look
Last week, 5-star Clemson commit Bryant Wesco and his family made the trip to Death Valley to watch the Tigers post a 48-14 win over Florida Atlantic.
You can be certain he is ready for Clemson’s game Saturday, a showdown with No. 4-ranked Florida State, on Saturday — only this time, watching from a TV.
SBLive caught up with Wesco, the Midlothian (Texas) star 6-foot-2, 170-pound wide receiver, on Thursday after a 47-15 win over Cleburne at the Midlothian ISD Multipurpose Stadium.
>> Clemson football commit Bryant Wesco wows opposing coach: 'He can make a 7th grade QB look good'
He's the top-rated prospect in Texas, the No. 3 receiver and No. 9 overall prospect in the country in 2024, according to 247 Sports.
Against Cleburne, Wesco had four catches for 81 receiving yards, two touchdowns and a 64-yard punt return for touchdown — all while wearing a Clemson arm sleeve and purple Clemson gloves.
Here are some notes and observations on Wesco:
ON CLEMSON
Wesco is one of two 5-star prospects in Clemson's 2024 class, ranked No. 15 in the nation. Him and Jefferson (Georgia) linebacker Sammy Brown.
He talks with either Clemson wide receiver coach Tyler Grisham or head coach Dabo Swinney either every day or every other day through text or phone calls. Wesco also stays in contact with the incoming recruits.
Clemson landed cornerback Corian Gipson from Lancaster, meaning he will have another player from the DFW area with him in South Carolina. Wesco said there are group text chats with the current receivers and incoming ones, like Tampa Catholic (Florida) 4-star receiver TJ Moore, who committed to Clemson the same day that Wesco did — June 6.
Wesco has aspirations to follow in the footsteps of other Clemson greats at the position. NFL rosters are dotted with former Tigers, with six across the league from DeAndre Hopkins, Sammy Watkins, Mike Williams, Hunter Renfrow, Tee Higgins and Ray-Ray McCloud.
“I’m pretty excited to go (to Clemson),” said Wesco, who will graduate early and be there in December. “But now, I’m trying to make a big season and make a deep run in the playoffs. We are aiming for state, that is the main goal.”
HOW WESCO FITS IN AT MIDLOTHIAN
For the first four weeks of the season, Wesco had taken care of the extent of Midlothian’s scoring through the air.
The Panthers had gotten eight touchdowns from quarterback Drew Wendel during a 3-1 start — all of them to Wesco.
After going off for 125 receiving yards and four touchdowns in Week 4, the nationally-ranked prospect added two more receiving touchdowns to his ledger on Thursday. Wendel threw two of his four touchdowns to Wesco.
Wendel also found tight end Kole Tompkins and wide receiver Zechariah Washington for scores, which will be a needed addition to the offense given to coverage Wesco draws.
“They bracketed him (Wesco) tonight and we weren’t able to get him the ball as easily as we did last week,” Coach Doug Wendel said. “I think everybody is going to play us a little bit different, but they will have a plan for him. We’ve got to have other guys that can make plays.”
Cleburne coach James Woodard had a different view as Wesco carved his secondary.
"Both of his touchdown catches tonight, we had kids in great positions," Woodard said. "He’s an athlete and went and got the football. You tip your hat to him and go on to the next play.”
Midlothian had success running the ball as the focus by Cleburne was to slow down the passing attack. Running back Michael Garber was the benefactor of that with 20 carries for 182 yards — a career-high — and a touchdown.
The Panthers base out of the flex bone, geared toward running the ball. However, with the state’s No. 1 player, giving him the ball in space to make plays is a good idea.
Wesco made his first catch in a drag route for a first down and then added 11 yards on a run for a reverse. He added the first of two touchdown catches in the first quarter. His second came early in the fourth. On the latter score, he out-jumped a defender in the corner of the end zone.
ALL-AROUND PLAYER
On the Tompkins touchdown catch, both Washington and Wesco came up with blocks to help spring Tompkins on his 14-yard score in the first quarter.
“It is great to see everyone else get some touches; I love seeing my teammates succeed,” said Wesco. “We have other guys open most of the time. Once they get open, they back off on me.”
The 81 yards receiving was his second-best game of the season and the fourth game in a row where Wesco has hauled in multiple touchdowns. Last week, he had 5 catches for 125 yards and a career-best four touchdowns.
He has 26 catches for 389 yards this season following the win over Cleburne.
Wesco is averaging about eight catches a game and the only time he was held out of the end zone was in Week 1, a 21-7 loss to Seguin.
“I think we learned the first week of the season, just take what they give us,” Coach Wendel said. “I think you saw tonight, we hit him on a couple on a couple of drag routes. We run some option routes, mostly we take what they give us.”
-- Cody Thorn | codythorn1981@gmail.com |@sblivetx
