Clemson football QB Trevor Lawrence is the face of the program heading into 2019. Will he be treated like Deshaun Watson in the spring game?
Clemson football quarterback Trevor Lawrence may very well not just be the face of the program in 2019, but the face of College Football.
All eyes are on the true-sophomore after he led the Tigers to a perfect 15-0 season and a National Championship in his first season as a freshman. Lawrence enters the 2019 season as one of two favorites to win the Heisman Trophy, battling with Alabama signal-caller Tua Tagovailoa.
This Saturday, Lawrence will play in front of thousands of Clemson football fans during the Tigers’ annual spring game.
Though the rosters haven’t been released for the game as of yet, I expect the sophomore signal-caller to be treated very similar to former Tiger great Deshaun Watson when he was entering his junior season.
In 2016, Watson played quarterback for both teams. He was the starter for both the orange and the white team and played several possessions, completing 7-of-11 passing attempts for 141 yards and two touchdowns before the coaches shut his day down in the first half.
I believe we could potentially see Trevor Lawrence do the exact same thing here in 2019.
You could see him matchup and play both ways for the first quarter or so, and then have Chase Brice and Taisun Phommachanh match up against each other for the remainder of the game, with Ben Batson sharing time with Phommachanh.
Then again, the coaches may reward Chase Brice with a start in the spring game if they feel he has earned it. In that situation, I would think that Brice and Ben Batson play on one team with Lawrence and Phommachanh on the other.
I would expect Trevor Lawrence to play most of the first half before the freshman entered the game, and I’d expect to see Brice play most of the game with Ben Batson entering in the second half.
It will be interesting to see how the coaches handle the quarterbacks as they try to provide a fair playing field for the two teams to compete. After all, the winner of this game doesn’t have to participate in extra conditioning drills.