A true freshman connection between quarterback Trevor Lawrence and wide receiver Justyn Ross was too much for Notre Dame, as Clemson wins the Cotton Bowl.
Saturday evening marked the fourth-consecutive trip to the College Football Playoff for Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers. Clemson had won the ACC the last four seasons, had played in the national championship game twice in the three previous season, winning it all at the end of the 2016 NCAA season.
Though Deshaun Watson is two years removed from being the greatest player in Clemson football history, the Tigers aren’t really worried about him starring for the NFL’s Houston Texans. That’s because they have a new five-star signal caller in the form of true freshman Trevor Lawrence lighting it up on fall Saturdays.
Lawrence was the No. 2 player in the country and usurped his incumbent Kelly Bryant mid-season. While this is only his first season as a starter, that was no issue whatsoever for him on Saturday, as Clemson throttled the undefeated No. 3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, 30-3.
No. 2 Clemson will await the winner of the Capital One Orange Bowl between the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide and the No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners in the national title bout next week.
Yes, Notre Dame might have been outmatched, but it was an early first-half connection between Lawrence and another true freshman in the form of wide receiver Justyn Ross that sealed the Fighting Irish’s fate.
Lawrence completed six passes for 148 yards and two touchdowns to Ross in the ball game. Both of those touchdown strikes were of the big play variety, coming in the second quarter.
The first aerial trip to pay dirt was 52 yards, while the second was only 42 yards. Simply put, Ross could not be contained by Notre Dame in space. Lawrence found his fellow true freshman very easy to win in a rout.
Not even a year ago, these two big-time players for Clemson were still in high school. Lawrence enrolled early in January 2018, while Ross wouldn’t commit to the Tigers until National Signing Day in February 2018. He enrolled back in the summer.
Ross had 34 catches for 699 yards and six touchdowns on the year through the ACC Championship Game. With another performance like this, he’ll go over 1,000 receiving yards in his true freshman season.
He’d be well on his way to being the next elite Clemson wideout for Swinney, joining the likes of Sammy Watkins, DeAndre Hopkins, Martavis Bryant, Deon Cain and Mike Williams to name a few.
Like Ross, Lawrence has at minimum two more years left in the orange and purple before even thinking about going pro. Lawrence has to be the No. 1 quarterback prospect of the 2021 NFL Draft class. At 6-foot-6 and an accurate howitzer of a right arm, what’s not to love about him as an NFL quarterback prospect already?
As for Ross, he’ll need another year or two of this kind of play to merit a high NFL Draft selection. He’ll be playing on fall Sundays soon enough.
We know that Clemson is an absolute national power under Swinney. What we didn’t know was that a pair of true freshman would be enough to thwart a great Notre Dame team on a national stage in the Cotton Bowl on Saturday night. Look out for the Lawrence to Ross connection down in the southland for at least the next two years, America.