Clemson football players Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne were both ranked inside the top-10 for the best CFB players in the nation.
Athlon Sports released its early list for the 10 Best Players in College Football and two Tigers made the list.
Clemson football players Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne were both among the leaders after stellar performances in the 2018 season that led to a National Title. Etienne checks in at No. 4 on the list and Trevor Lawrence at No. 2.
Though that may seem like an impressive feat- and it certainly is- both players should’ve been ranked higher than their respective standings.
First, let’s start with Etienne.
Above Etienne is Wisconsin RB Jonathan Taylor. Taylor is, without a doubt, an elite running back. The reason that I think Etienne should be ahead of him, though, is two-fold. First, Wisconsin isn’t an elite program. The Badgers aren’t going to CFB Playoff and may not even win their division.
Secondly, Taylor accomplished an impressive feat last season, rushing for more than 2,000 yards. It took him 307 attempts, though, to reach the 2,194 yards and 16 touchdowns. That’s a lofty 7.1 yards per carry, which would be impressive if we didn’t know Etienne’s numbers.
Etienne only rushed the ball 204 times last season, but had 1,658 yards and 24 touchdowns. He averaged 8.1 yards per carry. That’s a whole yard difference in average and he scored eight more times than Taylor.
With that being said, I do believe you can make the argument for either running back.
However, I don’t know how you can make the argument for Tua Tagovailoa to be No. 1 over Trevor Lawrence at this point.
Didn’t the two guys just play against each other?
Didn’t one guy lead his team to an absolute route of the other team? The last time I checked, Tagovailoa threw a pick-six to start that game. I understand that he has been struggling with injuries, but I just don’t see how you can go back to putting him No. 1 after what Lawrence did last season as a freshman.
Lawrence was the better player on the field and proved that. In the end, all you have to do is ask NFL scouts who they’d rather have out of the two quarterbacks and the answer to this question will be pretty clear.