If you are Deshaun Watson, expectations come with the territory. The reigning ACC Player of the Year is favored to win the award again this year as well as the Heisman Trophy, the Davey O’Brien Award, the Manning Award, the Archie Griffin Award and the Maxwell Award.

“The standard is never going to change. The best is the standard,” Watson said.

No one seems to be better than Clemson’s All-American Quarterback at being the best, even when he isn’t. Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney says Watson takes criticism just as well as he does compliments.

And just like he does the compliments, he doesn’t let them get to him.

“I think he is a great player, obviously. I love Deshaun,” Swinney said. “He is a special person. People look at him as a player, and it is easy to assess his talent and you just go ‘Wow!’ But this young man is five hours away from being a graduate in two and a half years. That is unheard of.

“That’s the type of focus that he lives his life with and structure. To go with all the things that come with being a quarterback, he can still take the time to do that.”

That’s why the lofty expectations the media and the fans place on Watson don’t seem to really faze him. As Swinney has said, he stays humbled and hungry.

With all that he has accomplished, there is still a lot he can do that he has not done. Watson can become the first player since Charlie Ward in 1993 to win ACC Player of the Year honors in back-to-back fashion. He is also trying to become just the second Clemson player to win the honor in back-to-back years. Steve Fuller did it in 1977 and ’78, the last ACC player to win the honor two consecutive years before Ward did it in 1992 and ’93.

Watson can also become the first Clemson player to ever win the Heisman Trophy, which would be an even bigger honor than it already is for a Clemson player, considering John Heisman coached at Clemson from 1900-’03.

“You have to know and understand that nothing is going to be given to us, we have to go earn it,” Watson said. “That’s starting off with being a good citizen off the field, being a good student in the classroom, watching film, working out, taking care of your body, eating right, little things like that. If you take care of the little things, the big things are going to take care of itself.”