It is not every day a freshman quarterback leads his team to a national championship. In fact, the last time it happened prior to 2018 was in 1985. It is not every day a quarterback wins the first 25 games of his career and leads his squad back to the national championship game the following year.

But not every team has a quarterback like Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence.

At times, Lawrence has made it look easy. In his two years at Clemson, he has thrown for 6,945 yards with 66 touchdowns and just 12 interceptions. Last year, he earned First-Team All-ACC honors, while throwing for 3,665 yards and 36 touchdowns with just eight interceptions.

Lawrence also rushed for 563 yards and scored nine touchdowns on the ground in 2019. He did not throw an interception in his last eight games, ending the season with 239 consecutive passes thrown without an interception, breaking his own Clemson record.

On the biggest of stages, he has made it look even easier. As a freshman, he earned MVP honors against Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl, tossing for 327 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions in a 30-3 victory over Notre Dame.

Lawrence had an even better performance in the national championship game against Alabama, throwing for 347 yards and three more scores and again no interceptions on his way to another MVP performance as the Tigers rolled to a 44-16 victory.

He was again Clemson’s Most Valuable Player in the last year’s Fiesta Bowl win over Ohio State, this time he used his legs to rally the Tigers to a 29-23 victory. Lawrence rushed for a team-high 107 yards on 16 carries, including a 67-yard touchdown.

The Cartersville, Ga., native also threw for 259 yards and two touchdowns and led Clemson on a 94-yard touchdown drive to win the game in the final minutes, a drive Lawrence capped with a 34-yard pass to running back Travis Etienne with 1:49 remaining in the game.

“For him to be in the situations he has been in at a young age, and to maintain that poise is very difficult to do,” Clemson’s quarterback coach Brandon Streeter said. “That’s just a God-given talent that is very, very special. Deshaun (Watson) had the same thing as far as the poise. That is something that is important to have as quarterback.”

And like Watson during his time at Clemson, Lawrence has become the face of the Clemson program. Expectations for him and the Tigers in 2020 are extremely high. Maybe higher for him and the program than at any time during Clemson’s current run in which it has won two of the last four national championships.

However, just like he was in Watson, Streeter is confident Lawrence will know how to handle the moment. He will know how to lead his team. He has already shown he can do both.

“We are very fortunate. We talk about it all the time. As a quarterback you’re the face of the program, and that’s not just being on the field, that’s being off the field,” Streeter said. “Obviously, Deshaun did an excellent job of that, of doing what he is supposed to do off the field. There were no issues there with him being a team guy.

“I think Trevor noticed that whenever Deshaun was here. It helps in recruiting. It helps in the fact you get to go sell that to the recruits out there. Trevor has done the same thing. He’s done a great job of not just being a team guy on the field but off the field as well. Everybody on his team respects him a ton and trusts him.”

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