Recruited heavily by Alabama, Trevor Lawrence chose Clemson in part because of Deshaun Watson. Now, as a freshman, he’ll try to beat Alabama, just like Watson did in 2016.

When Trevor Lawrence takes his first snap in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday night, he’ll make history.

No, the Clemson quarterback won’t become the first true freshman to start in a title game. It’ll actually be the third consecutive year in which that happens, and that’s not even including his counterpart Tua Tagovailoa. Between Jalen Hurts, Jake Fromm and now Lawrence, college football is a bit numb to a trend that would have seemed completely far-fetched a decade ago. A sport that once scoffed at the notion of a true freshman quarterback is now more accepting of it than ever, and perhaps even to a fault.

So what’s special about Lawrence? Well, besides the usual stuff. Like, he’s 6-6 with an NFL-ready arm and he fueled Clemson blowout wins en route to the program’s third national championship appearance in the past 4 seasons. He already has next-level scouts drooling about him 2 years before he’s eligible in 2021.

“Man,” Bleacher Report NFL Draft scout Matt Miller told SDS, “if we could put him in this year’s class, he might be at the top of it.”

Lawrence was the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2018 class. He wasn’t the first quarterback to accomplish that feat in the 21st century, either. Vince Young did it at Texas back in 2002, and Matt Barkley did it at USC in 2009. Young redshirted his true freshman season — a baffling thought in itself — while Barkley earned the starting role and led the Trojans to a 9-win season.

To recap, no quarterback in the recruiting rankings era was ever No. 1 overall in their class and then started in a national championship as a true freshman.

Lawrence will change that Monday night.

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The words “freshman” and “Lawrence” will be synonymous for one more game, but only in title.

He already hzx the size, though he’ll likely add some bulk to his 215-pound frame. He already has the rare combination of arm strength — he had a pass clocked at 61 miles per hour — and accuracy (65.5 percent, only 4 interceptions). He already has the numbers with just shy of 3,000 passing yards and a 27-4 touchdown-interception ratio.

Lawrence could fool even the most astute observer.

“Well, he certainly doesn’t look like a freshman,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said, “that’s for sure.”

Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Monday won’t be Saban’s introduction to Lawrence. The Alabama coach started recruiting Lawrence when he was just a sophomore at Cartersville High School (Ga.), just north of Atlanta. He was as much a can’t-miss player then as he is now, according Saban.

“Even then, there was no question about the fact that (Lawrence) was going to be one of the best players in the country at his position,” Saban said. “He certainly is that.”

Three weeks before Alabama and Clemson met in the 2016 College Football Playoff National Championship, Lawrence had made up his mind. He wasn’t rolling with Saban — though not from a lack of effort on Alabama’s part — nor was he staying in Georgia to play for the Dawgs. Clemson was the choice.

Why? Besides the obvious reasons (the coaching staff, the campus, the prestige of the program, etc.) there was an ace in the hole for Clemson to land the No. 1 overall recruit — fellow Georgia native Deshaun Watson.

“(Watson) kind of laid the path,” Lawrence said. “I think just what he did here and what he was able to accomplish was something to look up to, and definitely seeing him do that, it was kind of like, ‘You know what, why can’t I do something like that?’”

Lawrence was focused on following in the footsteps of the guy who played his high school ball an hour and a half away from him. A few other people also had their sights set on becoming the next Watson.

“Man, if we could put him in this year’s class, he might be at the top of it.”
Bleacher Report NFL Draft scout Matt Miller

There was Kelly Bryant, whom former Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris handpicked to be Watson’s understudy and eventual successor. There also was Hunter Johnson, the 5-star quarterback in the class ahead of Lawrence who committed nearly 1 year earlier.

Lawrence wasn’t even the only talented quarterback from Georgia who wanted to replace Watson. Four-star Jonesboro, Ga., native Zerrick Cooper was already a true freshman when Lawrence gave the Tigers his verbal pledge in December 2016, and Loganville, Ga., native Chase Brice followed in the 2017 class.

Dabo Swinney remembered having meetings with Lawrence when the freshman arrived on campus. To Swinney’s amazement, none was about the elephant in the room — Clemson’s crowded quarterback room. Swinney said that to this day, Lawrence never asked about another quarterback on the roster or another quarterback that they were recruiting.

That, according to Swinney, said everything he needed to know about Lawrence’s confidence and focus. The on-field stuff soon confirmed Swinney’s belief that he had something special.

“I don’t think I can say I actually knew until I started coaching him last spring and just saw how quickly he processed things, how easy it was for him,” Swinney said. “I don’t know about easy, but just his preparation, his focus, but his ability to absorb installation and then take it to the practice field and how quickly he adjusted to kind of the speed of everything. He just never really looked like a freshman.”

Except that one time.

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Like Watson, Lawrence beat out an upperclassman and took over the starting job by late September of his true freshman season. Swinney’s decision to declare Lawrence as the starter for the Syracuse game over Bryant, who led Clemson to a Playoff berth in 2017, prompted the senior to use the new redshirt rule and transfer in the middle of the season. After Cooper and Johnson left, Bryant became the third Clemson quarterback to transfer in 2018.

All of the Tigers’ eggs were in Lawrence’s basket, and he nearly dropped all of them in his first career start.

Rolling out to his left, Lawrence panned his options and tried to find an open receiver. After shaking off two Syracuse defenders, he attempted to tip-toe the sidelines and try to pick up a few yards with his legs (something he’s more than capable of doing when plays break down). Instead of getting out of bounds, Lawrence lunged forward and appeared to lose his footing at the same time, which left him completely exposed to take a hit from Syracuse defensive back Evan Foster.

As Lawrence was taken to the injury tent and ruled out for the rest of the game with a head injury, Twitter buzzed with a thought that probably crossed Swinney’s mind.

“This is the risk you take when you have a true freshman starter at quarterback.”

It wasn’t just that Lawrence made the freshman mistake of taking a hit he never should have taken. It was that Lawrence — the same person who never asked Swinney about the quarterback depth chart — took that hit knowing that Brice was Clemson’s only other scholarship quarterback left.

Swinney thanked his lucky stars that Brice stepped up and delivered one of the more clutch relief performances in recent memory to propel a late Clemson comeback. Clemson might not be playing Monday had Brice not converted on a key 4th-and-6 pass to set up the winning score. The Tigers let out another exhale when they found out that Lawrence would be able to return to his starting role the following week.

For Lawrence, though, the lesson was clear. While he said he learned something about trusting his teammates that day, the other point was driven home. No more freshman mistakes.

“Well, he certainly doesn't look like a freshman, that's for sure.”
Alabama coach Nick Saban

To his credit, those have been few and far between in his freshman season. In each of the 9 games since then, Clemson won by a minimum of 20 points and had an average margin of victory of 37 points. Not even Alabama has been that dominant since the end of the first month of the season.

After the teaching point that was the Syracuse game, Lawrence had an 18-2 touchdown-interception ratio. He attempted 365 passes, yet he took just 11 sacks all season. In the regular season, Pro Football Focus actually had Lawrence rated as the best quarterback in America at avoiding mistakes. They had him with just 3 turnover-worthy plays in the entire regular season, and with a 77% adjusted completion percentage.

“It shouldn’t be possible,” Pro Football Focus analyst Mike Renner said. “We’ve never seen anything like it.”

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In many ways, Lawrence’s rapid development is a sign of the times. There’s a reason that he’s continuing this trend of true freshmen playing for national championships. It isn’t just that guys like Lawrence, Fromm, Hurts and Tagovailoa credit their faith-based family backgrounds, though that certainly helps.

The trend of early maturation of quarterbacks could be at least partially attributed to growing up in the 7-on-7 era, which some point to as Patrick Mahomes’ 2014 class and on. More reps — and doing so without the risk of contact — certainly helps from a confidence standpoint. Whether it’s the back-shoulder fade, hitting the seam route out of the run-pass option look or connecting on the over-the-top post, Lawrence can already make all the throws.

Miller said that Lawrence’s precision resembles another former 5-star recruit who took advantage of the the 7-on-7 era and started as a true freshman.

“What’s crazy for (Lawrence) is just how natural he is. Everything he does almost looks perfect,” Miller said. “He reminds me a lot of guys like Josh Rosen, who at 18 years old was making throws than an 18-year-old shouldn’t make in terms of ball placement and being able to read the defense and just quickly get the ball out.”

Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Former Florida quarterback Luke Del Rio has a different comparison for Lawrence: Joe Flacco. Both of them, according to Del Rio, have smooth strokes with compact deliveries and they move “better than people give them credit for.” Combine that with being 6-6 and there’s really not much one can pick apart with Lawrence’s game.

“The ball looks like a nerf ball in his hands,” Del Rio said. “The amazing thing is he plays like he’s 6-2, 6-3, but he’s way taller.”

The early consensus with Lawrence is that he has no ceiling. Del Rio, who’s also the son of former NFL head coach Jack Del Rio, said that as long as Lawrence is healthy, “you can already etch it in stone” that he’ll be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.

"What’s crazy for (Lawrence) is just how natural he is. Everything he does almost looks perfect.”
Bleacher Report NFL Draft scout Matt Miller

Whether that proves to be true or not, what seems indisputable is that the talent is off the charts. That’s why Swinney was willing to turn to Lawrence after 4 games knowing that Bryant, who led Clemson to the Playoff last year, could leave as a result.

“Those are the kind of things — we’ve seen him play, we’ve seen him throw, we’ve seen him move — that when you add that into it, you start to get the feeling that it might be pretty damn rare what he’s able to do,” Miller said.

The more immediate question is whether Lawrence can do what Bryant couldn’t. That is, beat Alabama, like Watson did in 2016.

After that championship, the question was whether Swinney could sustain Clemson’s run in a post-Watson world. A 26-2 mark with 2 Playoff berths and a national championship game appearance suggests that question was already answered.

It has been 3 months since Swinney turned to Lawrence. At the time, the question was about whether a true freshman could lead the Tigers back to the national championship. An undefeated season and yet another date with Alabama suggests that question was already answered, too.

Lawrence is ahead of his time. We’ll find out if his time is Monday night.