#80 Days Until Pitt Football: Antonio Bryant

If you spend any time on Twitter, you no doubt have seen people posting certain Pitt players wearing uniform numbers that correspond with the number of days left until the football season kicks off. Jim did it last year and this year, Pat Narduzzi has been doing it.

I know we have a lot of younger readers here and also some folks that may not have spent their entire lives following Pitt sports. For that reason, I thought it would be cool to not only do the countdown here, but also give a brief writeup on the player to potentially help fans connect a little more with some of the all-time greats.

Quick disclaimer - this isn't necessarily about picking the best player for each number. Not only is that disputable in many instances, but it's not really the point of the exercise. So don't be offended if your favorite player doesn't make the list here. I'll probably mirror Narduzzi's list for the most part but may go off the board in a few instances.

These will also be brief, folks. It's the offseason and we all use this time to wind down a bit. These won't be theses or anything, but we'll cobble together a few facts for each guy.

Finally, feel free to add on to a player's accomplishments in the comments section. Some I'll leave out due to space/time and some I may not even know about. But this will be a good learning exercise for all of us.

Continuing our countdown today is wide receiver Antonio Bryant.

We've got our third straight wide receiver today with a look at one of the Panthers' best to play the position. Before Larry Fitzgerald, it could be argued that Bryant may have been Pitt's top wideout in the school's history.

Bryant burst onto the scene in the Walt Harris era with 51 catches for 854 yards as a freshman back in 1999. That was just the beginning as he would earn All Big East First Team honors in his next two years and in 2000 as a sophomore, was a consensus All-American that won the Biletnikoff Award as the top receiver in the nation. That season, Bryant had 68 catches for 1,302 yards and 11 touchdowns in only ten games.

Bryant's junior year was a step back has he had only 42 catches for 659 yards, but still scored nine touchdowns and after leaving school early, was taken in the second round of the NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys. He went on to play seven seasons in the NFL with the Cowboys, Browns, 49ers, and Buccaneers, and was twice a 1,000-yard receiver. His best season was in 2012 with Tampa Bay with 83 catches, 1,248 yards, and seven touchdowns.

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