Trevor Lawrence is back to crash the top of the Heisman leaderboard

Clemson quarterback needs help, but with No. 2 Notre Dame looming and a stat-building game ahead, Trevor Lawrence can pave a path to the trophy.

In a matter of weeks, he’s gone from Heisman Trophy front-runner to also-ran, and now, like the GIF of the Undertaker rising up from a ring-side coffin that Twitter so loves, Trevor Lawrence is back.

There’s no denying we’re in the midst of a two-man race between Florida’s Kyle Trask and Alabama’s Mac Jones. The two quarterbacks have not only amassed monster numbers in seizing the spotlight but should the No. 6 Gators win Saturday at Tennessee and Crimson Tide take down LSU in Baton Rouge, they’ll meet in the SEC Championship Game in a likely duel for the trophy.

It’s a formula that will make it extremely difficult to keep the Heisman from staying in the SEC’s grasp, but if anyone is going to deny Trask or Jones, Clemson’s quarterback has reemerged — or, to borrow from WWE’s Deadman, his hopes resurrected.

To be clear, this would be truly unprecedented (as we’ve discussed before), given Lawrence’s two-game absence after his positive COVID-19 test, part of a five-week absence from the field. It goes without saying he’d also benefit some help in a setback from one, if not both, of Trask or Jones, but Lawrence has already been aided by Justin Fields fading further back as Ohio State’s tilt with Illinois was canceled last weekend (and there are obstacles for the Buckeyes to playing this Saturday against Michigan State).

Trevor Lawrence is back and he’s coming for his Heisman Trophy

Lawrence has momentum after racking up over 400 yards in his first action in five weeks and now he needs more. He needs more eye-popping numbers in his closing stretch, and the one thing we’ve yet to see from any of this year’s contenders: a Heisman Moment.

He has the remaining games that could provide both.

The Tigers can wrap up a spot in the ACC Championship Game with a win Saturday vs. Virginia Tech, and coming off a monster day against Pitt, Lawrence could feast yet again as he faces a Hokies defense that ranks 109th in FBS and is 105th against the pass and last time out gave up 404 yards through the air to the Panthers’ Kenny Pickett.

There was at least hope Lawrence would get a crack at another struggling defense to bolster his counting numbers, but Tuesday’s announcement from the ACC brought an end to that. Florida State — whose Nov. 21 date with the Tigers was postponed hours before kickoff — will play Duke on Dec. 12, and Clemson’s regular season comes to an end against the Hokies.

Given Florida State is 110th in total defense and 103rd vs. the pass and allowed 374 yards and three touchdowns to North Carolina’s Sam Howell, it’s a defense Lawrence would likely have teed off on, but we now have — barring another further virus-related hiccups — a clearer idea of the Clemson star’s closing stretch in his Heisman argument.

It’s not as if racking up yards against two bad defenses may was going to help Lawrence bridge the overall statistics gap anyway. His 2,236 yards and 19 touchdowns are 574 yards and 15 scores behind Trask and he trails Jones by 492 yards and four touchdowns, but take into account their per-game production. Lawrence is currently averaging 344.7 yards per game vs. FBS teams, second only to Trask’s 351.3 among Power 5 players, while Jones is averaging 341.

That’s part of the foundation of Lawrence’s campaign. Along with how much more effective Clemson has been with him at the controls — averaging 11 more points (48.7) and 67 more yards (527 yards) — not to mention the Tigers suffering their only loss while he was sidelined.

Which takes us to that ACC title game rematch with unbeaten No. 2 Notre Dame, which is where things could get very interesting for Lawrence to continue this Heisman revival.

Trask has been the most prolific of any Power 5 passer, but can he win the Heisman without taking down Alabama? Since the start of the CFP era, only Louisville’s Lamar Jackson in 2016 won on a team that didn’t make the final four.

If the Crimson Tide do beat Trask and one-loss Florida, can Jones claim the trophy if he’s not the reason why?

There’s no clear answer to either of those questions, and Lawrence spoiling the Fighting Irish’s perfect season and keeping the Tigers unbeaten with him on the field may leave us with a matter of personal preference of who the nation’s most outstanding player is before votes are Due 21.

This is where the entire body of work and the entirety of a career could become a tipping point.

The Heisman shouldn’t be a career achievement award, though it has been on numerous occasions. When Ricky Williams won in 1998, he did so on the back of setting the career rushing record, and a year later, Ron Dayne claimed the award by breaking the same mark.

Awarding the trophy as the culmination of all that a player had done in multiple years has yet to be a factor in any vote in the playoff era, but if it was going to become a talking point, doesn’t a season in which one contender (Fields) playing potentially playing four fewer games than another (Trask) seem the most fitting of times? Doe the player’s impact on this season, with the foundation of what he’d accomplished in full seasons before that become a factor?

If the body of work comes into play, Lawrence, with those two national title game appearances and the potential of a third, and a 32-1 record as a starter, has a resume his challengers can’t match.

While the missed games are the most difficult part of his campaign to accept, given the death knell it has been for so many before him, the complexities of trying to play amid a pandemic, and those weekly, if not daily, reminders of how fragile this entire season really make 2020 a monster where the past isn’t always the best guide.

The odds remain long.

Trask is clearly out in front at -110, with Jones second (+150), but Lawrence has gone from +900 to +500 and the #Tevor4Heisman hashtag has new life. The SEC may be in control, but the Clemson quarterback is going to have his say in this race, something that didn’t seem so certain weeks ago.