Clemson QB Kelly Bryant: 'Everybody wants to write me off ... I ain't going nowhere'

Clemson held its second scrimmage of the spring and its first at Death Valley on Wednesday afternoon and, as he has done throughout the past month, Kelly Bryant impressed.

The senior tossed four touchdown passes, including one to Amari Rodgers that went for 65 yards, as he continues to maintain his grasp on Clemson’s starting quarterback job.

There has been plenty of talk about the younger quarterbacks over the past few months, most notably No. 1 overall recruit Trevor Lawrence, but Bryant made it clear he has no plans to relinquish his starting role.

“Everybody wants to talk about everything else that's coming in, but me, I just go back to work and I just let everybody else do the talking,” Bryant said. “Everybody wants to write me off, but I'm still here and I ain't going nowhere."

Bryant was a Manning Award finalist in 2017 after leading the Tigers to the College Football Playoff in his first year as a starter.

The Calhoun Falls native passed for 2,802 yards and 13 touchdowns and rushed for 665 yards and 11 scores as a junior as the Tigers won their third consecutive ACC title.

Still, there are plenty of fans and analysts who are not completely sold on Bryant.

"Oh man, I love it. Tell them to keep questioning,” Bryant said.

There is no doubt that there is plenty of other talent in the Tigers quarterback room with Lawrence, former five-star quarterback Hunter Johnson and redshirt freshman Chase Brice.

Each quarterback had one touchdown pass of at least 20 yards in the scrimmage, and Tigers coach Dabo Swinney has said throughout the spring that Clemson can have success with any of the four quarterbacks. Co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliott reiterated that stance on Wednesday.

“They all looked good. All of them had an opportunity to lead touchdown drives. We’ve got four guys that are competing their butts off,” Elliott said. “All of them are good enough for us to win a lot of games with.”

But Bryant continues to have an edge on the others thanks to his leadership, experience and play.

“The component that’s really good for him is he can’t use his legs in a scrimmage because they’re not live, so now he has to really go work on the things of commanding the offense and driving the tempo,” Elliott said. “Kelly just continues to be Kelly. You can tell that he’s the most veteran guy. He does the little things that some of the young guys are trying to learn how to do. And that’s just what keeps him in the position that he’s in."

This story was originally published March 30, 2018 at 1:31 PM with the headline "Clemson QB Kelly Bryant: 'Everybody wants to write me off ... I ain't going nowhere'."