Trevor Lawrence lost the Heisman Trophy vs. Syracuse Orange

Trevor Lawrence lost the Heisman Trophy vs. Syracuse Orange

Unfortunately, Clemson football fans likely won’t be seeing the program’s first Heisman Trophy winner this season following Trevor Lawrence’s performance Saturday against the Syracuse Orange.

Lawrence, who has been considered the favorite for the award through the first month and a half of the season, played his worst game of the season and had difficulty finding his accuracy at times during the afternoon.

He finished the day completing 27-of-43 passing attempts (62.7 percent) for 289 yards and two touchdowns, as well as one interception. That one interception was a pick-six that has since been replayed more than a dozen times on SportsCenter.

Trevor Lawrence is a deserving Heisman candidate, but narratives are what drive the award

Yes, Trevor Lawrence played his worst game of the season. No, he shouldn’t be excluded from the award or taken out of the ‘favorite spot’ because of one bad performance. Oh, and by the way, his ‘bad performance’ still featured him throwing for almost 300 yards.

That being said, the Heisman Trophy voting was never meant to be fair. It’s a popularity contest driven by media members and, unfortunately, Lawrence isn’t the guy that they want to win the award.

For example, take a look at these two headlines that were listed back-to-back on ESPN.

There are two main players who are in competition with Trevor Lawrence for the Heisman- Ohio State’s Justin Fields and Alabama’s Mac Jones.

Fields has been the media favorite before the season ever began (actually the season only began Saturday for him since the Big Ten delayed its season for so long) and Jones is the new flashy name who is putting up gaudy statistics every single week (he threw for 387 yards and rushed for a touchdown in a blowout win over Tennessee).

There’s no doubt that we’re going to start seeing a big uptick in Justin Fields love over the course of the next few weeks and, unfortunately, we’re going to start to see these so-called analysts use Lawrence’s performance against Syracuse against him.

I hope I’m wrong, but I believe Trevor Lawrence lost the Heisman Trophy Saturday afternoon against Syracuse while Fields and Jones just became the two legitimate candidates.

If that is the truth, Lawrence shouldn’t worry too much. He has far more important things to play for as the season progresses anyway.