Bryan Bresee feels he was ready to move on, pursue lifelong NFL dream

Bryan Bresee awaits just when he will hear his name called in the NFL draft later this month. (Photo: Trevor Ruszkowski / USATODAY)

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Tue Apr 11 13:00:25 GMT-04:00 2023

Bryan Bresee didn’t know for sure that he was going to head to the NFL until after the season. He had an idea. But he didn’t know for sure until he weighed all of the factors.

Following the conclusion of the season, it didn’t take Bresee long to make his decision, announcing his call to turn pro on December 2nd. Bresee, a junior, had 5 1/2 tackles for a loss and 3 1/2 sacks in 10 games last season as a second team All-ACC selection. He missed a game against Louisiana Tech after the death of his 15-year-old sister, Ella, following a year-long battle against an aggressive form of brain cancer. Bresee also missed the Boston College game due to a kidney infection.

After a tumultuous year, he wanted to make sure he was making the right decision.

“I definitely wasn’t 100 percent set in stone throughout this year,” he said. “Had a lot going on this year, so wasn’t 100 percent set on heading out after everything,” Bresee said this week when he joined Clemson alums Kelly Gramlich and Eric Mac Lain on the Gramlich & Mac Lain show. “But I was just kind of waiting until the end of the season, talking to Coach (Dabo) Swinney, Coach (Woody) McCorvey, figuring out what the next step would kind of look like for me. But wanted to finish out the season and kind of just see where it put me at the end, and I waited to decide until then.”

However, he said he knows he made the right decision.

“There was so many different factors that kind of went into it (decision to turn pro),” Bresee said. “But at the end of the day, I felt really prepared for it and ready for the next level, and that’s kind of what it came down to.”

Bresee ends his Clemson career with a long list of accomplishments – he was a freshman All-American in 2020 when became the second ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year in Clemson history, joining Dexter Lawrence (2016). He is credited with 64 career tackles (15.0 for loss), 9.0 sacks, four pass breakups, an interception, a forced fumble and a safety in 915 snaps from scrimmage over 26 games (21 starts). He also contributed offensively in Clemson’s jumbo package.

However, it’s the win over North Carolina in Charlotte last December that stands as his favorite.

“There’s been a bunch of really good moments,” Bresee said. “I would say for me, this last ACC Championship this past year was definitely really special, just how everything kind of came together at the end of the year there and the team played so well together. Winning championships are hard, so it was really special for that team that we had last year to go out and do it.”

Bresee was a highly-coveted prospect coming out of high school in Maryland – the former 5-star defensive tackle was the No. 1 recruit in the country for the 2020 class. What led him to choose Clemson?

“There was a lot that went into it in high school,” Bresee said. “Went and visited just about everywhere I feel like during my high school days. At the end of the day, meeting with all the coaches at Clemson and getting to be around some of the players and seeing the culture that was at Clemson, it’s just where I thought I’d grow the most as a player and as a man. So, I thought the people around me were the right people to make that happen.”

Now, he takes that next step in his journey and heads to the NFL where he will complete a lifelong dream.

“There’s a video that my mom posted on Facebook when I declared from me in like first grade saying I wanted to play in the NFL for a school project,” he said. “It’s been a lifelong goal of mine, dream of mine, and I’m sure it’ll be an emotional moment when it does come true – not only for me but my family, how much they all have sacrificed, and just always having my back through all of it and have never doubted anything that I’ve believed in. So, it’ll be a special moment.”