How many teams could Trevor Lawrence lead to the College Football Playoff?

Pac-12 (2)

Will this be the year the Pac-12 finally gets a team back into the College Football Playoff? They’re batting .333 in that department, which is good in baseball, but a terrible percentage in seemingly every other sport. One team is good enough to get there on its own accord in 2020. That would be the Oregon Ducks. And because we believe in California Sunshine, why not the USC Trojans?

Oregon Ducks

Oregon is coming along as a program under head coach Mario Cristobal. This isn’t some gimmicky up-tempo stuff that worked a decade ago under Chip Kelly, which allowed Mark Helfrich to coast with all the way to the national title game in 2014. Oregon dominated the Pac-12 and won the Rose Bowl with Trevor Lawrence lite in the form of Justin Herbert. Here’s the real thing.

Lawrence is seemingly better at every aspect of playing quarterback than Herbert. He’s a better runner, his arm is more lively and he’s exponentially better playing off-script than the reigning Academic Heisman. Herbert is good enough to go in the top 10 in the 2020 NFL Draft. Lawrence is good enough to go No. 1 in 2021 after leading the Ducks back to the national title bout.

USC Trojans

Why not? Lawrence is so good at playing quarterback he can carry the utter clown show that is USC football all the way to the College Football Playoff. If a lesser version of him in Sam Darnold can carry the Trojans to a Rose Bowl appearance, then Lawrence can win the Pac-12 and carry hapless USC to the playoff.

As with Jim Harbaugh in Michigan, Lawrence should be allowed to call all of his plays and none of this Conference USA crap Clay Helton thinks can work on the West Coast. Lawrence will slaughter every team he plays in-division and might be able to hold his own vs. Alabama and Notre Dame in the non-conference. USC has the schedule to reach the playoff and Lawrence gets them there.

First team out: The Pac-12 doesn’t really have one, but you can argue for a handful of teams like the Arizona State Sun Devils, the Utah Utes or the Washington Huskies. Utah and Washington are more championship-caliber than Herm Edwards‘ team. So let’s go with Utah because we know what Kyle Whittingham is as a head coach and we have no idea what Jimmy Lake is about just yet.

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