Clemson Freshman Bryan Bresee Exceeding Early Expectations

Dabo Swinney says freshman defensive lineman Bryan Bresee is exceeding early expectations and embodies characteristics of several former Tigers

Clemson freshman defensive lineman Bryan Bresee has made the most of this playing time so far this season and his head coach feels he is exceeding year one expectations through the first three games of 2020. 

Bresee enters this weekend's top-10 showdown against Miami with six tackles and 1.5 sacks on the year. 

"We're getting more than we could have expected out of Byran Bresee," Swinney said. "He's a true freshman and he's got two or three sacks through the first three games and two of those games were limited snaps just by nature of the game. He's got a bright future and if he stays healthy he'll be a freshman All-American type guy for sure. He's very gifted and disruptive." 

We live in a never-ending cycle of comparisons in the sports world and on Tuesday head coach Dabo Swinney was asked who Bresee reminds him of when compared to former Tigers he's coached. 

His response was similar to what one might expect when creating a player on Madden.

"He's a combination of a lot of guys. Bryan is certainly athletic like Christian (Wilkins), he's freaky big kind of like Dexter (Lawrence) and he's got a motor like Grady Jarrett." 

You don't have to follow Clemson closely to know that is quite a list of players to be mentioned in the same sentence with. The scary part is Bresee is just getting started. 

Swinney says he thinks when it is all said and done at the end of the season he'll have a much better assessment and sample size to compare him to others, but he's without question a special player. 

"Bryan is a special talent but far from a complete player. But we're getting more than you could have ever expected from a true freshman. He's a little bit of a combination of a lot of guys we've had come through here. But hopefully, as he goes through his career we'll have a little more clarity," Swinney said.