Why five-star Clemson receiver recruit Bryant Wesco could be ‘one of the best’

Midlothian High School in Texas doesn’t play around when it comes to football.

The Panthers have a JV team, a freshman team and a varsity team, and they played in a stacked conference in a stacked area — the Dallas-Fort Worth region — that’s full of Power Five recruits.

The speed that his players face on a weekly basis, Midlothian coach Doug Wendel said, is “pretty legit” — essentially on par with what they’ll be facing in college.

So, given all that, five-star Clemson recruit Bryant Wesco must’ve had a pretty expansive route tree and grasp of the wide receiver position to catch all those touchdowns for Midlothian. Right?

“He was really good at the jump ball,” Wendel told The State. “A fade, or jump ball, or he’d run past you — that’s about all we did his junior year.”

So … not exactly.

Wendel, Midlothian’s coach of eight seasons, has known Wesco since he was in seventh grade. And he thought back to the simplicity of the Panthers’ passing offense in 2022 — backyard football, essentially — as he tracked the star wide receiver’s progress over the years.

He was a lanky kid who could make a middle school quarterback look good, which isn’t the easiest task. Then he was a rising star on the freshman team. Then he was a junior torching opposing defenses in his second year on varsity while still figuring things out.

Now he’s an outgoing senior with a full understanding of what it takes to be an elite receiver, the No. 21 recruit in the country and someone being talked about as the first step in Clemson getting back to its “WR U” reputation of years past.

A fair assessment, according to Wendel.

“I would say I’ve never seen anybody be able to do it like he does,” he said of Wesco, adding: “He’s just an elite athlete, but he has worked very, very hard at it.”

A ‘huge ceiling’

Wesco, the No. 6 receiver in the Class of 2024 and one of only 36 high school players in the country to earn a composite five-star recruit designation, is one of the top incoming signees for Clemson heading into college football’s early signing period.

And when he formalizes his commitment Wednesday at his high school, he’ll officially be on board with the Tigers, who see Wesco as someone who can get their wide receivers unit back up to a nationally renowned level and told him as much in his recruiting process.

“Getting my name out there, being someone that could make a difference in the program and start a whole new era for an entire team, that’s huge,” Wesco told the Greenville News in June.

Five-star Jefferson (Georgia) linebacker Sammy Brown (No. 16) is the only player among Clemson’s 18 verbal commits for 2024 who ranks higher nationally than Wesco.

The receiver is 6-foot-2 and 170 pounds; the son of two LA Tech track and field athletes who was once clocked running at 24.17 mph; and a big-play threat who has 25 touchdown catches over the past two years.

No wonder 247Sports director of scouting Andrew Ivins calls Wesco — also a qualifier for Texas’ track and field state championships primarily as a jumper — a “scouting crush” for the website.

“He reminds me of the type of receivers Clemson had when they had it cranking — a big guy that can run on the outside and win the football,” Ivins said last week on a media call. “He comes from an athletic background, in terms of his parents. Huge ceiling for him.”

The blue bloods of college football were on Wesco early, even more after he posted 56 catches for 1,072 yards and 12 touchdowns as a junior in a run-heavy offense with a passing game that might as well have been titled “Get it to Bryant Wesco.”

Entering the summer, Wesco and his family had official visits on the books for Southern Cal in May and Clemson, LSU and TCU (in that order) in June. Oklahoma was also in the mix.

But the fourth highest ranked wide receiver prospect in Clemson’s modern recruiting history only made it through two-fifths of that docket before pulling the trigger on a Tigers commitment on June 6, less than 24 hours after he took in the program’s blowout official weekend.

“He loved it from the start,” Wendel said.

And Upstate South Carolina has been his destination ever since. Wesco canceled his remaining visits and, in October, sent out a gentle reminder to other programs on the platform X (formerly Twitter) that while he appreciated their reaching out, he was 100% committed to Clemson.

That celebrated message came amid the Tigers’ 4-3 start to the 2023 season and, likely, some negative recruiting in terms of where coach Dabo Swinney’s program was headed and what Wesco, the No. 6 recruit in the state of Texas, could do at another program.

“I see all these kids flip, and it’s just the norm to do,” Wendel said. “You look out for yourself. But it doesn’t surprise me at all that once he made his commitment, he was locked in and not interested in talking to anybody else. That’s just kind of who he is, who their family is.”

What’s next for Wesco?

Then came an extra level of growth for Wesco as Midlothian went 8-3 and 7-1 in district play: “Becoming elite,” as Wendel put it. After a summer of growth and development, the receiver showed up for his senior year just better across the board.

The stats, 36 catches for 619 yards, didn’t exactly pop. But Wesco caught 13 touchdowns on those 36 catches — that’s almost one score every three receptions — and displayed the sort of comprehensive skill set Wendel sees translating immediately to a college level.

“Now he’s got total control of his body,” Wendel said. “He’s willing to go underneath on crossing routes. He’s able to find the hole in the zone on the curl route. We did so much more with him this year. Last year was just pretty much ‘Throw it up to him.’”

If there’s one knock on Wesco — who is only behind Roscoe Crosby, Sammy Watkins and Deon Cain in 247Sports’ all-time rankings for Clemson wide receiver recruits — it’s his frame. At 6-2 and 170 pounds, he would rank as the third lightest player on the Tigers’ current roster of 100-plus players.

No worries, Wendel said. Wesco’s only prominent injury in high school came after he pushed himself a little too hard in track and field. But Wendel, knowing the soon-to-be Clemson receiver’s work ethic, thinks a college strength and conditioning program will fit right in.

“I’m just guessing, he’s probably 170,” Wendel said. “Next year, he’s 180 as a freshman. By junior year, he’s probably about 200, 205.”

And then?

“I think he’ll be one of the best in the league, to be honest with you.”