Clemson wide receiver Bryant Wesco Jr. has put on some pounds since last year and believes he’ll benefit from that added weight during the upcoming season.

According to Wesco, he’s about 15 pounds heavier now than he was as a freshman in 2024.

“Last year, I think I weighed in at like 175,” Wesco said when he met with the media on Friday. “This weigh-in, I [was] 190, so probably 15 pounds.”

Wesco, who is coming off a highly productive freshman All-America campaign last year, expects his extra strength to help him “a lot” this season.

“Helping me mainly in blocking,” he said, “and then [being] more explosive, not as easy to tackle, not as easy to get your hands on, but still being elusive.”

Now that he’s bigger and stronger, the former blue-chip prospect from Texas can already tell a difference when he’s going up against Clemson defensive backs.

Whereas Wesco was admittedly “bullied” at times last year, he’s seeing that he’s able to hold his own better now when he has to block guys that might’ve pushed him around more in 2024.

 “Yeah, definitely,” Wesco said. “Those guys are stronger, too. They’ve been strong since I first got here. So from last year, from them bullying me up, I’m not getting bullied nearly [as much] as it was last year.

“So, I’m being able to hold my own when it comes to those aspects of blocking, and then having to lean back into them, just being able to put my weight on them a little bit more than I did last year.”

So, which Clemson DBs “bullied” Wesco the most a year ago?

“They all had their moments, I had my moments,” Wesco said. “Avieon [Terrell], Ashton [Hampton], Shelton [Lewis] – when I first got here, we went up a lot. They all gave me some good work.”

Wesco caught 41 passes for 708 yards (a team-high 17.3-yard average) and five touchdowns over 12 games (11 starts) as a freshman. 

He and T.J. Moore comprised Clemson’s freshman wide receiver duo in 2024 that made the Tigers the first power conference team since at least 2000 to have multiple freshmen reach 650-plus receiving yards and five or more touchdown catches in a single season.

Moore also spoke to the media on Friday and had a funny response when asked about Wesco saying he hasn’t been bullied as much this year.

“I would never admit to that,” Moore said with a smile.

The future is certainly bright for the talented tandem of Wesco and Moore.

As good as they were in their debut seasons, Clemson offensive coordinator Garrett Riley is expecting much more from his star wideouts during their sophomore campaigns.

“I know they had great years as true freshmen, but there is a night and day difference now,” Riley said at Clemson’s media outing last month. “They are in a much better place than they were a year ago. They would say the same thing. It is not even close.”