Eventually Trevor Lawrence was going to be the starting quarterback at Clemson. Saturday’s easy victory over Georgia Tech may have moved up the timeline. I’ve been a Kelly Bryant guy. Clemson doesn’t beat Texas A&M without him. He’s a very good quarterback, but he doesn’t have Lawrence’s ceiling as a player. Clemson can cruise to an ACC Title with him at QB, but that may be as far as he can take Clemson.
He would remain the starter as long as he had better command of the offense. Lawrence is rapidly catching up with Bryant in that department. He may have surpassed him by what we saw against Georgia Tech.
Lawrence looked far more comfortable with his read option plays than a few weeks ago. He seemed quicker and more decisive. The offense ran more crisply while he was in there. Lawrence threw for 176 yards and 4 TDs in basically 2 quarters of play. Sure Georgia Tech is a bad football team, so that has to be taken into account, but the offense just ran better with Lawrence at the controls.
He arm talent is undeniable. He can make throws Bryant simply isn’t capable of. Lawrence may not be able to beat Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State or Oklahoma but in the end he’ll give Clemson a better chance in those games than Bryant. Especially now with it being obvious he’s picking up the nuances of the offense with each passing week.
If not this week against Syracuse, the change is coming sooner rather than later.
