Starting Clemson DE Austin Bryant out for season opener

The Clemson Tigers lost two big defensive players last year as defensive ends Shaq Lawson and Kevin Dodd left for the NFL. Sophomore Austin Bryant is expected to make a big impact for the team this year, but he will be out for at least the season-opener with an injury.

It was reported that Bryant went down with a foot injury during practice on Tuesday. The team ruled him out for the season opener against Auburn on Sept. 3.

Just kind of a freaky thing,” head coach Dabo Swinney said. “It was really the same thing he did in high school, but he had a screw put in the bottom part of his toe this morning. So he is going to be out for a few weeks. Hopefully, we will have him back sooner than later. We are hoping for the Georgia Tech game that he will be ready to roll, but we will see. (It was) pretty simple procedure as far as what they did. Like I said, he actually had the exact same thing on the left foot in high school. Screw stays with you for life, so now he has got two screws in the same spot on both feet. He will be back and ready to go and in the meantime, somebody else will step up.”

This leaves the Tigers in an odd position as it means true freshman Xavier Kelly will likely have to be ready to go for the team next weekend. In 2015, Bryant recorded 22 tackles and 1.5 sacks.

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College GameDay headed to Lambeau Field for opening weekend
College GameDay headed to Lambeau Field for opening weekend