Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence (16) drops back to pass as running back Tavien Feaster (28) defends during their NCAA Cotton Bowl semi-final playoff football game against Notre Dame on Saturday, Dec. 29, 2018, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth)Trevor Lawrence didn’t shy from Clemson’s stacked quarterback depth chart when he committed to the Tigers back in December 2016.
Nobody is expecting him to cower now with Monday night’s College Football Playoff championship game against Alabama looming. The showdown between the No. 1 Crimson Tide (14-0) and the No. 2 Tigers (14-0) will take place in Santa Clara, California.
Lawrence committed to Clemson when two-time Heisman Trophy finalist Deshaun Watson was on his way to leading Dabo Swinney’s Tigers to the program’s first national championship since 1981. Kelly Bryant was the favorite to succeed Watson for the 2017 season and did just that, and Clemson added to its arsenal earlier that year by signing quarterbacks Hunter Johnson and Chase Brice.
None of that mattered to Lawrence, the 6-foot-6, 215-pounder from Cartersville, Georgia, who enrolled last January.
“To this day, he has never asked me about another quarterback – not one time,” Swinney said this week. “He’s never asked me one question about anybody that we were recruiting or anybody on our roster, and I just think that was one of the things that I knew early on about him. Here is a guy who’s got this rare confidence and focus.