Who is the best Clemson football recruit of all time: Trevor Lawrence or Deshaun Watson?

Is the best Clemson football recruit Trevor Lawrence or Deshaun Watson?

Recruiting is the biggest reason Clemson football has become a national power of late.

The Clemson Tigers were an excellent program under Danny Ford in the 1980s. However, the ACC football power lost its football for the better part of the next two decades. Clemson wasn’t bad but wasn’t exactly the best-run program in the 1990s and 2000s. That all began to change when former wide receiver coach Dabo Swinney took over for Tommy Bowden.

In the last decade, Clemson has gone from a good, but not great ACC team to an undisputed national power. Clemson has recruited at an SEC level but continues to benefit from playing an ACC schedule. It is what it is, but the Tigers are rolling these days, thanks in large part to the greatest recruit in program history. Of course, we’re talking about quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

Lawrence is entering his true junior season out of Cartersville, Georgia. Though about an hour outside of Atlanta, Lawrence grew up in a part of The Peach State where the Red and Black of the Georgia Bulldogs start to mingle with the Purple and Orange of Clemson. As a top-flight recruit, procuring his commitment was paramount for a school like Clemson.

Trevor Lawrence is the greatest recruit in Clemson football history.

At 6-foot-6 and 215 pounds, Lawrence was the No. 1 player in the 2018 recruiting class. He had 24 official offers but only made one official visit. That was to Clemson on Nov. 18, 2017. Though 247Sports had him as an overwhelming favorite to go to Georgia, Clemson edged out the Dawgs and the Tennessee Volunteers for his program-altering commitment in 2018.

Lawrence committed a year early by opting to play his college ball for Clemson on Dec. 15, 2016, shortly after the end of his junior season at Cartersville High School. Lawrence graduated from high school a semester early to early enroll at Clemson on Jan. 8, 2018.

Lawrence’s primary recruiter to Clemson was quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator, Brandon Streeter. He has landed four five-star players to his alma mater as a part of Swinney’s staff including 2020 pro-style passer D.J. Uigalelei out of Bellflower, California. Uigalelei is expected to replace Lawrence as the Clemson stater in 2021 after Lawrence presumably the NFL Draft.

And that’s the plan for Lawrence, though he won’t admit it publicly. Lawrence has already done enough in two years to assure himself of being the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. But he does have unfinished business to attend to. Lawrence lost his last start against the LSU Tigers in the national championship, which was Lawrence’s only loss of his college career thus far.

As it stands now, Lawrence has earned his spot on the list of all-time great Clemson football players with Deshaun Watson who may be the most important player in program history, but was only the 33rd-best recruit, according to the 247Sports All-Time Clemson Recruits.

What Lawrence has ahead of him in 2020 could make him the greatest player in school history, edging out Watson. If Lawrence wins the Heisman Trophy, goes undefeated and wins another title, he’ll surpass Watson as the best in Clemson football history.

Despite only two years on his Clemson resume, Lawrence is already its greatest Clemson football recruit of all time and it’s not really close.

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