What South Carolina's Jay Urich has learned from Kelly Bryant

Late last season, South Carolina quarterback Jay Urich got to share a moment with a good friend.

He was a redshirting, third-stringer on the field before his first Clemson game. Across the field was Kelly Bryant, the Tigers starter and a fellow pupil of Upstate quarterbacks instructor Ramon Robinson. Urich had looked up to Bryant early in his high school career, replaced him later on, and now both were parts of their state’s biggest rivalry.

“That was a special moment, pregame and postgame, being able to see him,” Urich said.

Bryant still has some things he can pass along to his friend.

Bryant had to wait his turn behind Deshaun Watson, then beat several higher-rated recruits to lead his team last season. Given the keys to a powerhouse team, he led them to a 12-2 season, with the only losses coming in a game in which he was hurt and to eventual national champion Alabama in the playoff.

Not many players experience something like that, and Urich has the ability to take something from that experience.

“Kelly and a lot of the guys that I trained with for years have been through it,” Urich said. “So being able to talk to them and being able to pick their brains about it has really helped me.”

Urich too is working behind an established player (Jake Bentley). He redshirted last season, and could well see his chance come after his third year, maybe second if Bentley departs early for the draft. He’ll also be in competition with a pair of four-stars in current teammate Dakereon Joyner and commit Ryan Hilinski.

It’s not the first time Urich follows a similar path to Bryant. After his sophomore season, Bryant transferred from Abbeville to Wren to be part of a more pass-centric attack. Urich did the same, coming from Blue Ridge.

Despite quarterbacking the Hurricanes for a combined four consecutive seasons, they were never really teammates. But that doesn’t mean the young South Carolina signal-caller can’t learn from his now-rival.

“Being able to just see and look back to see where we’ve been and now to be on this stage, our teams going against each other, it was cool to see how that was coming across,” Urich said.

This story was originally published April 26, 2018 at 1:11 PM with the headline "What South Carolina's Jay Urich has learned from Kelly Bryant."