Clelin Ferrell won the Hendricks Award as the nation’s best defensive end. He was also named a consensus First-Team All-American and was the ACC’s Defensive Player of the Year.

Christian Wilkins won the Campbell Trophy given to the nation’s top scholar athlete, who succeeds both on and off the field. He was also named a unanimous First-Team All-American and was the runner-up to ACC Player of the Year honors.

Dexter Lawrence was named a First-Team All-American by the American Football Coaches Association and was named a First-Team All-ACC defensive tackle.

It was the type of post-season honors expected by Clemson’s defensive line, one of the most dominant fronts in the history of college football. However, there is one guy on the Power Rangers that did not get the same kind of post-season attention as the other three.

Austin Bryant finished the regular season third on the team, behind Ferrell and Wilkins, with 10.5 tackles for loss and was second to Ferrell with six sacks. The senior also had 10 quarterback pressures.

The defensive end did earn third-team All-ACC honors, but that was it. Bryant, for the most part, went unnoticed for much of the season, while playing in the shadows of his three cohorts.

“It’s easy for someone on the outside looking in to assume that I feel that way, but all of those things are things that I can’t control,” Bryant said. “There’s a way people perceive me or see other people, and I can’t control that. All I can do is do what I can do, put the work in each day and prepare to play my best game.”

Bryant definitely was not overshadowed in the Tigers’ Cotton Bowl win over Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff Semifinals last Saturday. He led second-ranked Clemson with six tackles, including three tackles for loss and two sacks that came on back-to-back plays.

“All year I felt like I’ve done that,” Bryant said. “I feel like I’ve played better than I have last year. That’s really all the vindication that I needed is just to see my progression from last year until now.”

For his efforts in the Notre Dame win, Bryant was named the recipient of the McKnight Trophy as the Cotton Bowl’s Outstanding Defensive Player, a little vindication for not being noticed as much for his good works.

“It doesn’t really matter what the media portrays or puts out there because I know what kind of player I am,” he said. “I believe in myself and have full confidence in myself to play the best that I can each and every Saturday.”