Bryan Bresee Prepared to be a Better Run Stopper in Second Year

After a Tyler Davis injury put DT Bryan Bresee right in the thick of Todd Bates' rotation in 2020, Bresee knows what he can do to improve his sophomore season.

It's never easy to live up to your star high school status, but Bryan Bresee made it seem easy in 2020.

Recording 6.5 half tackles for loss and four sacks in his freshman campaign, Bresee has virtually locked up his starting position alongside junior defensive tackle Tyler Davis in 2021.

While Bresee isn't happy about the way last season ended, he's fully aware of what he needs to do to get better so he can take the next step in his development.

"I definitely got improve in the run game and work on my technique in general," Bresee said. "College football is a lot faster than high school, and I definitely need to start reading backfield sets better. Just a lot of pre-snap stuff, and also just like I said, my technique. I need to improve getting things down quicker."

Bresee finished second behind teammate Myles Murphy in voting for ACC Rookie of the Year in 2020 but still puts a lot of pressure on himself to improve on the details in his sophomore season.

"I mean for me, a lot of it was in the run game," Bresee said. "Just getting my feet and my hands right, reading offensive linemen and knowing what to do on certain blocks they send at me and like I said, getting pre-snap stuff done. So you know, in the offseason, I've been taking on a lot of those tasks. Just trying to get my feet right whenever we're going live and get my hand placement correct. I've just been working on getting a lot stronger and faster in the weight room during spring training and the offseason."

Bresee and Davis will handle the middle of a defensive line that returns all of its starters from a year ago. If Bresee remains healthy and further improves upon the impressive resume he's already built, the Tigers will be able to rest much easier in all of their defensive preparations for the 2021 season.

And with Davis healthy, Bresee now gets to play consistently alongside the teammate who was always in his ear and had his back throughout an injury-riddled year.

"(Davis) has always been a big help to me from when I first got here; you know it's like having another coach with you," Bresee said. "You know, when you're in the film room or on the field, he's super knowledgeable about the game. So, especially when he was out, and I was filling in and taking a lot of snaps, he was always there. After games, we would go and watch film together and see what I had to work on, what I didn't do well, what I did well...It's just like having another coach on the field with you."

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