Trevor Lawrence. 19 years old. 6'5" tall. Sharp, aware on the field and able to throw the football downfield on a dime? Tell me every professional football agent isn't drooling to get their mitts on this guy, eh? I wish him well in keeping his head about him over the next few years. All the attention and concomitant adulation has turned more than a few heads in the past. If you're a football fan it will be interesting to watch unfold.
John~
American Net'Zen
2
I used to think John Elway was the greatest
College Quarterback but It think Trevor Lawrence
may be even better.
4
Having spent my callow youth amidst Ivy walls, I was a bit unprepared for spending a Saturday afternoon in Palo Alto years ago watching Stanford and Arizona State combine for an NCAA then-record 1166 yards of offense. Elway was the second-best QB that day - Mike Pagel was even better. It was quite the show.
1
Clemson is a plucky underdog? Maybe you ought to take a look at that school's football budget.
12
Thoroughly enjoyed watching the game last. Can someone again explain to me why the players of this massive production are the only ones not getting paid? Neat trick to get players to play for free.
7
@Mark Dinan
Are you certain they are not getting paid? Money may well be going to Mom and Dad for approving their son's choice of 'university education.' Payment may be deferred until thay turn pro. I'm only guessing here but I find it difficult to accept the best players just happpen to asmall numberof select 'pro football prep' schools.
"menschy"? Where I grew up in the Midwest I can guarantee you no one would know what that really means much less use the term.
3
Hey I live 45 minutes from University of Michigan, my son went to Michigan State, and we all agree Notre Dame is Gods school,
so my favorite team right now is easy to see: "ALABAMA".............. After two interceptions the big mistake was not putting in Jalen Hurts......
Lawrence looked amazing, a lot of NFL teams I would bet are looking at him and bemoaning the fact that they won't be able to see him until at least 2 drafts from now (and maybe 3, if the kid does what he said, and stays through senior season). Same with the freshman receiver who looked like Odell Beckham out there. You can bet the players eligible for the draft are going to be on draft boards high up, Clemson's defense also looked amazing last night, a combination of the players playing smart, and the coaching (the D scheme was incredible, they made the Alabama offense look like the Buffalo Bills under Nathan Peterman). Basically, Clemson beat Alabama on all sides of the ball, and Alabama lost it in the first half when they let their emotions overcome them and they started making stupid mistakes.
11
Swinney's decision to replace Bryant with Lawrence was more obvious after the Georgia Southern game when he saw what Lawrence could do and then Brice proved himself as a solid back-up after their 4th game against Georgia Tech. Swinney knew they wouldn't win the national championship if he didn't take a chance with Lawrence but it certainly was gusty. It's to Swinney's character he made the move right after their 4th game and didn't string Bryant along for the entire season.
7
"Three years ago, after Clemson defeated college football’s signature team, Notre Dame"
When ND last won a championship Ronald Reagan was president. Since that 1988 season, eight different schools have won MULTIPLE championships (Alabama, Clemson, Florida State, Nebraska, LSU, Miami, Ohio State, Florida). Any of these is a better candidate for "signature team" than the Golden Domers.
21
Lawrence certainly performed extremely well. But what can't be ignored is how much time he had in the pocket to throw. The offensive line looked like it could start in the NFL today. They were incredibly impressive. I hope Swinney was able to give them the proper credit after the game. They made it a lot easier for Lawrence to stand out.
18
@BigFootMN
read the post game interviews mate, the QB himself gave credit where credit was due....trevor gave kudos to the 'O' line...'no sacks'....not only can he play but talk about being a mensch; he knows who butters the bread.
3
Refreshing to enjoy something of an antidote to all the Saban/Alabama/SEC gushing from ESPN (with the notable exception of Lee Corso). Hopefully, other relatively new faces like Texas coach Tom Herman will add to a good game and elevate the image of college sports.
3
Well, as long as these boys get a good education. That is why they go to college, isn't it?
11
It's hard not to like the full Dabo. Early in the game last night, Bama was moving the ball at will for a while and it was starting to look like an OK Corral affair was in the works. Dabo got in the face of his revered DC Brent Venables and hollered "Do Your Job!!!". Headsets were going askew, and the sideline was swirling with coaches running amok in the high intensity of major heavyweight battle.
That moment was over with in a flash, and shortly thereafter, the fortunes of the whole game shifted dramatically. Venables' D stepped up and put a lid on the Tide scoring. He gets a lot of attention, and rightfully so, but today, Tiger fans should also being singing the praises of the team's strength and conditioning coaches. Saban's men got outworked in a way that I did not think I would ever see.
6
@Mortiser actually Dabo was yelling at the ref, who didn’t call PI when AL knocked our receiver out of bounds before the ball wasn’t thrown.... but otherwise agreed.
@ John from Tennessee: As a side note...John stating that Notre Dame is ALWAYS overrated is just built-in bias. ND went undefeated and deserved to be in the playoffs. Notre Dame played as well as Alabama did vs Clemson. Notre Dame lost by 27 points and Alabama lost by 28 points ? Georgia players went on Twitter and said ND was undeserving to be in playoffs. Georgia promptly went out and lost to Texas. No one is ALWAYS right about the game. Let's cool it with the absolutes about one team on any given night.
10
@nardoi. I don’t like ND at all but your comment is absolutely right.
3
Of course it's mostly corrupt, the coaches are overpaid, and the players are exploited risking life and limb for a scholarship that can easily be ripped out from under them if they don't perform. It makes little sense and is morally questionable. But, college football is the least of our problems when you compare it to Trump's foreign and domestic policies, our lack of gun control, healthcare care system, etc.
15
"Clemson is the plucky underdog whose fans drive around with tiger tails trailing the back of their trucks." Please!!!! Clemson hasn't been the "plucky underdog" for a good while now.
6
Oh, come on folks.
This is a sports story and not a politics one to draw lessons from.
Congrats to Clemson and this "true" freshman. The wonderful picture the NYT has printed - I would have thought he is a true NFL QB.
As to is Clemson known only for football? Wrong.
You need to go to Omaha for College World Series (CWC) - this school has played far above it's weight in many of these championships.
And more importantly, their fans are fun to be with - well behaved and unbelievably supportive.
Finally, if a lesson is to be drawn, to me - it is this.
America is the only country where folks will take a chance on young folks - even kids - and they play like men in a man's game.
What is going on in Washington is the opposite.
Adults and some very adults are playing like kids.
Congrats, Clemson.
20
I'm a bit surprised at the folks who are using comment on this story to complain about the place football has in institutions of higher learning. Sure it's a disgrace, but one that is well documented long before now.
Even worse is the fact that, by far, the highest paid New Jersey State employee is the head coach of the miserable failure of a football team we have in Rutgers. There is talk that some day the athletic program will make money for the school (through its recent Big Ten affiliation). I'll believe that when I see it.
Maybe we could start by avoiding scholarships to people who are completely unqualified for college, have criminal records, or who beat up domestic partners. That might be a beginning.
8
"Gutsy call"? If this were a professional team I would be okay with the replacement of a senior with a freshman. This is a school team. College is about growth and education and development of kids. Yes the freshman was better. No the senior did not deserve to be taken out in the final year of a great college football career so the coach might have a better chance of winning a national championship. Otherwise we should just call the colleges farm teams. Casting Bryant aside when his team had won an ACC championship was horrid. Lawrence could have waited a year to be the quarterback. Yes he was great, but he's not in the pros yet. It's not naive to wish some degree of sportsmanship and academia in college sports. 99% of players never make it to the pros - so let's still focus on a bit of personal development and education so maybe they might do something more than earn some wins and big bucks for their coaches.
15
@Denver7756 Saban did it to Jalen. Tua should have been taken out last night during the first quarter.
Lawrence is a football savant. The kid has been first string since he was 14 and taking his HS to state finals. He's here to stay, at least for awhile. Hopefully, he won't go pro early.
2
@Denver7756 If a quarterback like Bryant hadn't grown up by the time he was taken out then maybe so, the school didn't do it's job; but he'd been beaten by Alabama the year before and since coaches are paid to win ball games that call proved to be the way forward for Clemson.
Bryant was given the chance to play ball, but not at Clemson and he moved on.
Listen to Admiral McRaven's famous address to his alma mater U of Texas: to get through life successfully you have to take risks, not shirk tough decisions, and get back up after failures.
I saw a coach teach his team life lessons through his actions, and he showed them how to win.
3
Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that the only thing Clemson seems to be known for is football? Imagine if Clemson put this amount of effort and resources into its academic reputation.
6
Clemson produced Nikki Haley who was the first woman governor of South Carolina (second Indian American governor in the US) and also the US ambassador to the UN. She also has a good chance to become the first woman president of the US.
13
@Steve in Clemson is also the engineering school at the heart of the massive growth in high-end manufacturing in Upstate South Carolina. Clemson engineers are well-known throughout the South to be best in class. They also have a fantastic architecture program, and their agricultural program is great too. Yes, it leads to jokes about being a "farm school," but everyone in the region knows that Clemson is the best resource for questions from large scale animal husbandry to what that non-native flower in your garden might be. Oh, and as Rick said, Nikki Haley is a proud alumna too.
14
@Steve in
Look in the Times archives to read about BMW and Clemson. BMW is kind of a big deal. Maybe you have heard of it.
12
Top college football brings millions of dollars to the schools and the coaches get huge paychecks.
But the players who do the work and take the hits and the risks and are absolutely essential to the whole process receive very little. Many a promising football career come to an end with an injury in college.
Many of these young men come from families that have little in the way of financial resources and struggle to get by in college.
IMHO it is time for the colleges to give the players a modest amount of spending money.
19
@Bob in Pennsyltucky - perhaps a stipend in return for meeting minimum grade requirements that increases as their GPA increases? That would provide financial incentive to hedge their bets and prepare for a future career if their football career does not pan out because of injury or not getting drafted.
4
@common sense advocate
They already get a stipend. Time to keep up with changing rules. They have been receiving it for several years now, most players don’t use it all. They send the remainder back home. It’s been written about in the Times quite often.
@Bob in Pennsyltucky
And it is time for Donald Trump to reveal his tax returns...it will never happen. However, perhaps an injury fund for college players not able to play in the final 3 games of their senior season due to a permanent injury earlier that season or in a prior season....
2
Pardon me, but I was under the mistaken impression University or College was about education not playing games. Just imagine what we could be accomplishing if all these resources and enegy on the part of the participants ts and fans of collegians and professional sports was directed to make g the world a better place rather than winning a game which will be played again next season. What a huge waste of humanity. Spirit and energy to harvest zero ling term good while injuring countless players.
10
@Chris Ohrstrom
Well that would all apply to some other world that is rational.
College sports bring in money that allows the good that higher education brings.
I would that it were different but this is the world we live in.
Sports are big business all over the world and help foster national pride.
5
@Chris Ohrstrom
College football is a national treasure. It greatly enhances US universities. Having relatives that are Ivy League professors, I personally know how disgusting that sounds to them. By the way, the Ivy League competes in far more sports than Big Ten schools so they must think competitive sports is a good thing.
Today, no Big Ten school would dream of eliminating its football program. That’s a good thing. It paid for my college education which led to law school for me. Ask all of the women that receive athletic scholarships and ask them if they want them eliminated.
When is the last time you personally heard anyone mention the Univ of Chicago?
1
I tend to agree with you but if you find college sports that offensive, you should probably just not click on an article about college sports.
10
Well, the undertakers in Alabama will no doubt note a surge in business today.
12
Jamelle Holieway was a master of the wishbone, freezing defenses with his speed and fakes and then pitching the ball outside at the last possible moment. But, what made him so effective was his decision making, he rarely threw an interception. While he didn't pass often he was incredibly efficient with a rating of 141.5 over 39 collegiate games. Like the Clemson quarterback he was one of the best true freshman to ever play the position in college.
10
Wouldn't it be swell to read story after story on the academic achievements of college kids across the country?
44
@dl To be honest, not really. We do see when a kid is accepted to all of the Ivys, or who wins the Spelling Bee. Those that win the variety of honors throughout the year, but I don't need to read Clemson had a 84% graduation rate or whatever. Not in the NY Times anyway, that's for local news. The National Championship is just that, a National championship and I want to read about the game.
35
@dl
Apples & oranges/college academics & sports...
1
@dl Sure, but who is going to read them?
1
This TRUE FRESHMAN thing rattles the nerves as games announcers pound away at the moniker.
Either you is ... or you ain't a Freshman! After noting the early enrollment trick & realizing they get 12 months with their team before the Season ... it makes the bogus handle even more of a puzzle.
Let's just enjoy the enormous talent [without the labels] of these outstanding athletes.
9
@Vt
I think with the 'true freshman' label it is comparing it to the redshirt freshman, who spends their freshman year inactive (but practicing), so in experience they aren't much different than a freshman backup who was active freshman year. I personally like the idea of using year as being active, so first year player would cover a freshman who is active or red shirt in sophomore year.
3
@Vt
In college football parlance, "true freshman" means the player did not redshirt his first (freshman) year on campus. A sophomore who redshirted & plays for the 1st time his 2nd year in college is a Redshirt Freshman. If Lawrence were a redshirt freshman playing lights out like he did last night, it would have been remarkable; being a true freshman makes it even more so. Even with early enrollment (which is just a 4-month offseason jump), the true freshman label still is a useful distinction, imo.
10
@Vt
It's about athletics, not academics. The NCAA says an athlete has X number of years athletic availability. A college says a student may take all the time she/he may need, or want.
1
Very happy Clemson grad here this morning.
One small, but pivotal, point to be added to this saga, is that when Kelly Bryant learned he wasn't starting against Syracuse, he announced he wouldn't be playing for Clemson anymore. Okay, no more safety net, but we have Trevor Lawrence. However, in the second quarter of the Syracuse game, Lawrence took a hard hit to the head and lay injured on the field. The stadium fell silent as concerned fans looked at each other. Clemson had just gone from 2 outstanding quarterbacks to "Who?" .... Chase Brice, who had the prior week been the virtually unknown third string quarterback, took over with Clemson down 10 points, 23-13 to Syracuse, the only team that had beaten Clemson the prior year (other than Alabama). Chase Brice stepped up, and every single Clemson player stepped up, that afternoon to come back and win 27-23 without Kelly Bryant, and without Trevor Lawrence.
As the teams came out onto the field last night, one announcer said that Nick Saban had told his team to leave their emotions behind. Although there was tremendous physical talent on the Clemson team last night, in the end, it was the heart and soul of every Clemson player that made the difference.
63
@Nancy A Clemson man needs no introduction! Good context for all those who didn't live through that Syracuse game and Brice's personal journey from deer in the headlights to realizing his potential greatness when it counted the most. The amazing Renfroe catch to start Brice's and the Tiger's comeback is just the glitter and sparkle to enhance the beauty of the butt whipping the Tigers put on Bama last night.
6
Clemson and Lawrence were the real deal. Alabama (and the SEC) were overrated. Notre Dame was very overrated. OSU was underrated. The committee got it wrong. We need a proper play-off with at least twice as many teams. Because that protects us from a committee that sometimes gets it all wrong.
20
@Robert Notre Dame is ALWAYS overrated. The committee will wisen up in ten or twenty years.
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@Robert
Last two meeting between Tigers and the miscreants laboring under UM. Tigers 2 - OSU 0 combined score
Clemson 71 vs. OSU 35.
It would appear that OSU is equally over rated along with Oklahoma and Notre Dame.
8
@Robert
Agreed.
The championship bracket will go to 8 teams (the money for it will make it so). But even then there will almost always be a team or two each year which can legitimately say how they were overlooked and left out.
It will be humans which do the polling of the team rankings, and so this will always include bias, experience, logic and the less-than-logical (pls see: pre-season rankings, which are based on teams which don't play during the pre-season and which all lose some players while gaining players who've yet to play collegiate football). Even if it's left to a computer to crunch the ranking results, some humans will first need to decide which teams to input for computation.
2
Picking Lawrence over Bryant was an easy decision. College coaches replace an older player all the time, it was done at Notre Dame this year also. It was done at Ohio State before the season when Haskins was picked over Burrow. I’m just talking about the very top teams. It was at IU but the young player was then injured. Its not an extraordinary thing. Obviously the author can’t see the difference between players. But that’s ok. You have to have studied the game for years to evaluate talent.
3
More about smarts than guts:
"Swinney knew the timing of his announcement would enable Bryant to transfer under a new N.C.A.A. rule that permits football players to redshirt (essentially get a do-over) during a season in which they appear in as many as four games. If Bryant stopped playing right then and there, he would be able to play one more season — almost certainly elsewhere.
Co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliott confirmed after the game that the redshirt rule was part of why Swinney made the announcement when he did, “to give Kelly an opportunity, if he did want to decide he wanted to go somewhere else and play,” Elliott said."
1
South Carolina may be "smallish" geographically, but it is now more populous than the physically much larger Alabama (and growing much more quickly).
Also, I think any South Carolinian would tell you that Clemson is not the "second" school, it's simply the land-grant university. One attends USC to become a lawyer, businessperson, or academic, but one chooses Clemson to become an engineer, architect, or manage agriculture. They are both very good schools at what they do, and the alumni from both are generally class acts.
One additional note on Swinney's program and its emphasis on family and character: Clemson alum Deshaun Watson was a rookie QB on the Houston Texans last year, and after Hurricane Harvey devastated the city, he donated his first game check - that first paycheck he had worked for years to achieve - to storm relief. That's the kind of player that comes out of today's Clemson program.
89
@JE
come on man "That's the kind of player that comes out of today's Clemson program." what about C.J. Fuller and Jadar Johnson, didn't they come out of today's Clemson program? didn't they get arrested last March for armed robbery?
Watson's actions are great but they are his, just as Fuller"s & Johnson's not so great and theirs also....which am I to believe represent the Clemson program?
20
Clemson having some four year players also helped. Doubtful, though, that Lawrence will be around that long. Whatever, a great performance on the biggest college stage.
1
From everything I read about Swinney, he is generally a first class guy. This article backs that impression, with the story of Bryant being able to transfer. It is challenging to be a first-class human in the big business of college football.
41
@Anthony Watching a young player emerge is something the college game offers over the pro. Everything about a true freshman is expressed in terms of possibility. The essence of sport.
3
"after Clemson defeated college football’s signature team, Notre Dame,"
Signature? Really? Their last national championship occurred in 1988, and the handful of times they've been included in the championship mix they have underwhelmed, to say the least. While they have a tremendous tradition and it's obvious that people want them to be a powerhouse again, there is no way they are college football's signature team. I think that title clearly belongs to Alabama.
56
@Three Bars
Notre Dame gets way too much attention.
21
@Three Bars
Notre Dame has been living a lie since the death of Knute Rockne.
4
My husband and I taught for over two decades at Clemson and were so glad to see the great outcome of this game (from a Canadian venue, no less). Dabo runs a quality program, with the culture of the team outstanding.
Anyone who's visited campus, though, knows it's not a backwater university!
48
So many people said it would be Alabam by 10. I've been to several Clemson games, one of my best friends was a graduate, and the student body is very, very nice. It's no backwater college with everyone driving a truck. I could not be happier for them.
33
I wonder what the talking heads on ESPN said and will say today. Everyone one of them that I listened to yesterday picked Alabama to win.
13
@susan Lee Corso picked Clemson, but I think he was the only one at ESPN. The headline there today is "Tide Rolled."
8
Coach Swinney said that he had to "make decisions that put the team in the best possible path to win.” What he didn't say, and the article did not stress enough, was that by giving the previous starting quarterback, Bryant, the chance to transfer and continue his college career as a starter somewhere else, he took a chance on damaging the team's prospects by not having the best backup quarterback available if the new starter were injured. He showed genuine concern for his players as individuals as well as for the overall success of the team. In this day of win at all costs, that is commendable. I'm glad it worked out and didn't get him fired.
103
@Minnoka the article was pretty clear that he was taking a chance, even mentioning the name of the QB who would back up Lawrence with Bryant's departure
4
Too bad our HBC in the Whitehouse lacks an adequate backup to step in and save the game. Fumble after fumble, out of bounds all over the field, and personal fouls galore.
Football brings welcome relief that some things can be done right (and the rules of the game enforced).
43
Never watch college ball with my husband, a die hard Auburn fan, but last night, I was mesmerized by the variety of plays Trevor Lawrence executed successfully, and watched until halftime. Clemson might just make a fan out of me.
33
It's Jamelle Holieway, not Jamie. And he actually threw the ball very well in the limited times that he needed to. He had probably the nation's best tight end to throw to that year, Keith Jackson.
17