Kelly Bryant will not be coming to Chapel Hill after all.
The former Clemson quarterback made his decision to transfer to play for the Missouri football team Tuesday night in a decision right after 7 p.m. via Twitter. Along with North Carolina and Missouri, Bryant was also considering Arkansas, Auburn, Miami and Mississippi State.
Bryant, who played in 29 games for Clemson and started all 14 games during the 2017 season, told head coach Dabo Swinney he would transfer from Clemson on Sept. 25, two days after he was benched in favor of true first-year quarterback Trevor Lawrence. Bryant, who was the 2017 ACC Championship Game MVP and passed for 2,802 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2017, has one more season of eligibility left as a graduate transfer.
Bryant’s time as the starting quarterback was clearly dwindling by the third game this season. After splitting snaps with Lawrence in the first two games and attempting more passes than the five-star recruit, Bryant saw his snaps sharply decline in the third game, throwing just 10 passes compared to 19 from Lawrence against Georgia Southern. Against Georgia Tech, Lawrence threw four touchdown passes and again threw far more passes than Bryant, making it clear Swinney was close to changing his starter.
In an exclusive interview with the Greenville News in a story published Sept. 26, Bryant explained his decision to transfer away from the program.
“I feel like it’s what’s best for me and my future,” Bryant said in the article. “I was just going to control what I could control and try to make the most of my opportunity, but at the end of the day, I just don’t feel like I’ve gotten a fair shot.”
Once Bryant left the program, he quickly started fielding recruiting offers from Division 1 programs. On Oct. 13, Bryant made an unofficial visit to Chapel Hill, where he watched UNC lose in a close battle to Virginia Tech, 22-19. During the game Bryant was seen with former UNC quarterback Marquise Williams and Jordyn Adams, a UNC football and baseball commit who was selected in the first round of the 2018 MLB Draft and made the decision to pursue professional baseball.
In an interview with Inside Carolina following his visit to Chapel Hill, it was clear Bryant came away impressed by UNC.
“I wasn’t expecting to come away the way I am not,” Bryant told Inside Carolina. “I was just blown away. It wasn’t like I was being recruited — they were straight up, they told me what the situation was, there wasn’t any beating around the bush, they weren’t just telling me things that I wanted to hear.”
