Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence proved that the future is bright on offense during the team’s Week 1 victory on Saturday.
The Clemson Tigers came out and took care of business in a big way on Saturday. They rolled over Furman 48-7 and showed just about everything that people expected of the contender in their Week 1 victory. The real treat for Clemson fans on Saturday was quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
The highly-touted freshman got plenty of time to shine with Clemson rolling in a blowout over the FCS program. The hype surrounding the nation’s No. 1 overall recruit coming into the season has been real stretching all the way since his arrival to the program. The hype train was off and running before the season started with speculation he would unseat incumbent starter, Kelly Bryant, who helped direct the team to a College Football Playoff berth last year.
While Bryant had a great day as well, Lawrence was able to get his first real reps and he stole the show. Lawrence was 9-of-15 passing for 135 yards and three touchdowns. It was certainly the type of performance that leaves open the question of who is going to be the main guy going forward for the program. One has to be careful about putting too much stock in the performance since it was against Furman and not Florida State but the hype train is about to hit another gear.
Dabo Swinney on the @ClemsonFB quarterback situation going forward: “My expectation is for whoever’s in there to play winning football.”
— Chris Low (@ClowESPN) September 1, 2018
Bryant certainly did nothing to lose the battle with his performance and he’s the experienced hand at quarterback. However, it was exactly the type of performance Clemson wanted to see from Lawrence in his debut.
It’s important to remember that it was Furman that the Tigers were playing and the schedule becomes increasingly more difficult from here. Next week, Clemson has their first big test of the season on the road against the Texas A&M Aggies.
Against Jimbo Fisher’s Aggies, it will be interesting to see if Lawrence is able to find his way onto the field. It’s certainly going to be a lot more difficult for Clemson to try and roll the way they did against Furman next week at Kyle Field.
Regardless of if Lawrence sees action against the Aggies, this was his first test. Live reps against an opponent that isn’t his own team in practice and he performed masterfully. The Clemson quarterback discussion will roll on and it will be interesting to see how Dabo handles it with a huge road game coming up.