Where’s the loyalty

As we all  should know by now, Kelly Bryant, now former starting quarterback of the Clemson Tigers, was told Sunday by his offensive coordinator and head coach Dabo Swinny that he will be replaced by back-up QB and 5-star prized freshman Trevor Lawrence.

Most traditionalists would start to look at whether or not Kelly Bryant was playing inefficiently, or if Bryant was a bad teammate or leader. But, nothing of the sort had happen. Kelly Bryant was just replaced by a QB who played well in the first four games of the season. The freshman did not out play Bryant in spring camp nor did he crush Bryant statistically in the regular season. Bryant was replaced because fans wanted to see what the freshman could do with this Clemson team as the starter.

But where is the loyalty. Football at one point was about loyalty. Loyalty to the players who have done their jobs well, players who did not cause any problems to the team on or off the field. But in todays game, loyalty amongst coaches have gone out the window.

This is not the only player to lose his job to a star back-up QB that the fans wanted to see. Alabama’s former starting QB, Jalen Hurts, was replaced by his back up Tua Taguoloa. Like Bryant, Hurts was replaced but at the start of the season. Tua was very essential in Alabama winning the National Title in January over Georgia in a crazy rally by the, then Freshman, Tua. But the loyalty in this case is that winning records are not considered anymore. Kids futures aren’t considered either.

Jalen Hurts record as a was 26-2, and those two losses came to Clemson in the National Title game in his freshman year when he scored the would be game winning touchdown, until Clemson’s Deshaun Watson lead the Tigers offense down in the final minute to score on Nick Saben’s defense.  So who’s to blame on that loss? Hurts did his job, Alabama’s defense didn’t back him up.

Kelly Bryant as a starter is 18-2, and in one loss he was knocked out the game with an injury last season and the other loss was to the eventual National Champion’s Alabama last December. These two players did their jobs as the QB, but because of fans and the un-loyalty of the head coaches in todays college football, the players futures are not considered.

What does the say about these programs, that even at a high level you will be replaced by fan favorites? The NFL at least give a QB an entire season before changing, and there is millions of dollars on the line in the NFL.

Kelly Bryant, Senior, has decided to transfer from the Clemson program, allowing him to have one more year of eligibility because of the new NCAA redshirt rule that allows a player to play up to four games in a season and still retain a redshirt. Dabo thought Bryant would finish the season with the Tigers, but why would he? The coach showed no type of loyalty to his QB at all. Kelly stated that he had waited his turn behind Deshaun Watson for two years. So why would he finish his last year of eligibility behind a freshman.

Clemson could have at least waited until next season to start the freshman, but no, the Tiger’s coaching staff chose throw loyalty out the window. Like I stated earlier, if Kelly Bryant was playing horrible than I understand the change, but that wasn’t the case. Kelly was completing 66.7% of his passes this season. Most schools would applaud that type of accuracy.

I hope this is a lesson to all the players playing college football or are being recruited by these coaches, loyalty to them means nothing. The only thing that matters to them is themselves making money and not the player’s future.

(Feature Photo: SportingNews)

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