Clemson football defeated Georgia Southern 38-7 Saturday afternoon. Here is our grade of freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s performance.
The Clemson football team defeated Georgia Southern 38-7 in Death Valley Saturday afternoon.
The offense wasn’t able to get into much of a rhythm and turned the ball over on several occasions, leaving points on the field.
In the second quarter, starting quarterback Kelly Bryant went down with an injury that we later learned was diagnosed as a bruised chest.
That gave freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence a chance to play the remainder of the game.
Here is our grade of the freshman gunslinger following his performance against Georgia Southern.
Clemson Football Grading: Trevor Lawrence
Stats: 12-of-17 for 194 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. 2 rushes for 13 yards.
Analysis:
When you look at that stat line, you have to be pretty impressed. Lawrence finished the day with an average of 11.4 yards per attempt and a QB rating of 98.2, which isn’t bad for a freshman being tasked on short notice to play more than he was originally expecting coming into the day.
Looking back at the tape, though, it was a tale of two halves for Trevor Lawrence.
Lawrence was 7-of-8 for 130 yards and a touchdown in the first half. He was just 4-of-9 for 64 yards and an interception in the second half. For some reason, he just wasn’t able to get into much of a rhythm in that third quarter despite being given the keys to the offense.
Out of those five incompletions in the second half, he had one where he underthrew a ball to Tee Higgins on a back shoulder route in the third quarter. The ball should’ve been a bit higher, but Higgins did have a chance to catch it. On a 3rd down and 9, Lawrence placed the ball just a couple of inches too far from Hunter Renfrow in the early fourth quarter.
The biggest mistake of the day for him, though, was a play where he attempted a pass, but had it batted up in the air and picked off. I don’t think he even saw that defender ahead of time.
While we can talk about a few of his mistakes, we can’t leave out the fact that he completely picked the defense apart in the first half, especially across the middle of the field. It’s clear he has the ability to throw the ball on point and will only get better as the season progresses.
Overall, it’s tough to give Lawrence a fair grade because he was working with tons of different personnel. There were three different groups of wide receivers seeing the field, different offensive linemen all game long and all four running backs.
In the end, though, that will help him become a better quarterback as he’ll develop chemistry and understanding with the entire offense.
Report Card Grade: B-
Lawrence still has some work to do, but he proved that he has the ability to lead this Clemson football offense. He made a few mistakes, but he also made some great plays. It will be interesting to see how his performance is graded by the coaching staff and what this means for the quarterback position going forward.