Bryant Wesco isn't hiding what Saturday means to him. The wide receiver who leads Clemson with 44 catches for 511 yards said Wednesday he's taking the Georgia Tech game personal, one year after the Yellow Jackets beat the Tigers on a last-play walk-off field goal in Atlanta.
"I take this one personal," Wesco said. "We went in their home, and they got us on a last-play winner last year. So I'm just taking this personal, and then we owe it to our fans. We owe it to Death Valley to come out here and win these home games, these type of games that we got to play in conference."
Wesco said it's not just him.
"Everyone should have it on their shoulders to come out here and dominate no matter who we're playing," he said. "I like to take every game personal. I like to take every game as if everyone's coming after me."
The chemistry with Tait Reynolds is part of what's working. Wesco pointed to the big 53-yard pass play from Reynolds that opened the Syracuse game and said the connection has grown all year.
"I think he's just grown in his decision-making, first of all, and then he's gotten a lot more mature back there in the pocket," Wesco said. "Just going through practice, we've been playing a lot faster, being on the same page, and then that really just translated over into the game."
On the red zone, where Clemson is 137th nationally, with just 11 touchdowns on 30 trips, Wesco put it squarely on the players.
"It really just comes down to execution at the end of the day," he said. "It's not really so much as bad play calls or none of that. We just, as players, we got to take it accountable, hold ourselves to that standard of just executing the plays the way we should."
There's a mental side to it too, he said. "Not letting the moment get to you. Just when you're in the red zone, everything seems a lot tighter. Just being able to play faster, process stuff a little quicker than you should on a normal down basis."
And the light moment: asked about Nolan Hauser saying he'd be a wide receiver if he wasn't a kicker, Wesco laughed it off but gave him some credit.
"He's pretty athletic for being a kicker, I would say. He does have the legs. There was one play on punt where he kind of ran down, made a sideline tackle. So he could probably run, maybe a little bit, if anything. I don't know how his hands are."
Wesco also said he's not on track to graduate after three years and that he's got another year to go. Additionally, he hasn't thought about the NFL draft.
"I haven't really been worried about that,” Wesco noted. “That's kind of a decision to make after the season's ended."
