Clemson Football: Will Lawrence-Etienne backfield ever happen again?

Will Clemson football fans ever have the opportunity to see Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne line up in the backfield together again?

There has been wide speculation on the future of the 2020 College Football season and that has left Clemson football fans- along with the rest of the country- waiting.

The Tigers are coming into the 2020 season as the favorites to win the National Championship and one of the major reasons why had to do with the return of two prominent players who are both in the Heisman discussion: QB Trevor Lawrence and RB Travis Etienne.

Lawrence and Etienne have been a cohesive and exciting backfield to watch over the course of the last two seasons and when Etienne announced that he would be returning for his senior season, Clemson football fans everywhere rejoiced in getting to see him line up alongside Lawrence for one final ride.

But what if the speculation surrounding the uncertainty of College Football comes to fruition? ESPN College GameDay Host Chris Fowler recently said there is growing momentum for the season to be pushed back to the start of 2021. He said a season that runs February to June is becoming a legitimate consideration.

What could that mean for the future of the Clemson football backfield duo?

Though the NFL could potentially move its draft back a few months, the reality of the matter is that we could see many draft-eligible juniors and seniors sit out the season in favor of resting and preparing for the next level.

Even if the draft didn’t take place until July, there would be a lot of College Football players who would prefer to have some time off rather than risk an injury or be worn down with no recovery time before they moved on to the next level.

One certainly couldn’t blame Etienne or Lawrence if they chose to head on to the NFL in this scenario rather than playing into the late spring- maybe even early summer- of the year they would be getting drafted.

I choose to remain optimistic, but there’ still a ton of speculation surrounding the season and there’s no certainty that we will ever see Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne line up in the same backfield ever again.