Clemson Tigers Boss Reveals Why Star Freshman Missed Wake Forest Game

The Clemson Tigers attacked Wake Forest on Saturday without any of their primary weapons on offense.

In fact, no one knew that star freshman wide receiver Bryant Wesco Jr. he wouldn’t play in the 49-14 victory until he showed up for pregame warmups an hour before the contest.

Since the media covering Clemson can’t watch practice during the week, the fact that Wesco didn’t play, or even make the trip to Winston-Salem, NC for the game, was surprising.

After the game, coach Dabo Swinney revealed why.

Wesco, in Swinney’s words, “rolled” his ankle during Florida State’s win and was “very sore” afterward in postgame comments picked up by local media.

“Hopefully we’ll get him back next week,” Swinney said, while indicating that Wesco will be day-to-day. Clemson returns home to face Virginia in a Saturday afternoon game at Memorial Stadium that will be on the ACC Network.

Without him, Clemson’s passing game had little trouble once it got going after a sluggish first quarter. Quarterback Cade Klubnic threw for 309 yards and three touchdowns and wide receiver Antonio Williams also threw a touchdown pass on a called play.

Tight end Jake Briningstool led the way with seven receptions for 104 yards and a touchdown. Troy Stellato and Williams each had six receptions.

Ten different Tigers caught at least one pass Saturday and the offense racked up 566 total yards. It was the second straight game the Tigers had more than 500 yards of total offense.

Clemson (5-1, 4-0 ACC) extended its winning streak to five games and ensured Swinney has yet to lose a game against the Demon Deacons (2-4, 1-3) since took over the program.

Wesco, from Midlothian, Texas, has caught 11 passes for 262 yards and two touchdowns this season.

Wesco joined the Tigers after being considered a consensus Top 35 player by all major recruiting services. The five-star player was ranked as high as No. 15 by PrepStar. He played in both the Under Armor All-America game and the Polynesian Bowl before arriving at Clemson for fall practice.

With Midlothian, he had 109 career receptions for 1,903 yards, an average of 17.5 yards per catch and 29 touchdowns. In just seven games as a senior, he had 36 catches for 619 yards and 13 touchdowns. That was after a junior season in which he had 56 catches for 1,072 yards and 12 touchdowns.

He also competed in track and placed fifth in the triple jump at the Texas 5A state meet in the spring of 2023.