By Will Vandervort.

It was the wrong read, but Deshaun Watson made the best of it.

With Clemson already in front of NC State 14-0 and the ball placed at the Wolfpack 5-yard line, Watson thought the defensive back had converged on the running back so he pulled the ball and went around right end. But as he reached the three yard line, the freshman noticed his mistake. The defender was right there to make a play.

So what did he do? He hurdled him. Watson hurdled the helpless NC State defender for his third of four total touchdowns.

When he went back to the Clemson sideline, offensive coordinator Chad Morris told him he did well, and Watson just smiled and said, “Coach, I’m having fun.”

There probably are not too many players in the country that are having as much fun as the Clemson quarterback is these days. In his first two starts, he has led the Tigers to lopsided victories over North Carolina and NC State, while also accounting for 10 touchdowns, including a school-record six touchdowns against the Tar Heels.

For the year, he has thrown for 1,181 yards. He has completed 68.9 percent of his passes and has thrown 12 touchdowns to only one interception. Right now he leads the country in passing efficiency and yards per attempt.

And he is doing it all with the calmness of a guy that looks like a fifth-year senior as opposed to a kid that this time last year was studying how to attack a bunch of high school defenses.

“He is just having fun and he will be the first to tell you that,” Morris said. “Just the innocence of it all, it is incredible. He makes a lot of people better around him.”

He has led the Tigers (3-2, 2-1 ACC) to two straight wins and nearly beat top-ranked Florida State when he came off the bench down in Tallahassee, Fla.

“He is just a freshman. He still makes mistakes. He is going to make mistakes,” Morris said. “He is not going to master this position as much as we all think he can. Even the great ones don’t master it. There is always room for improvement.

“It is my job as a coach and as his coordinator to keep him grounded and to get him to understand that. He does and he is very humble and very quick to give everyone around him credit and that’s a sign of a leader. The guys look to him and he provides a spark and there is no doubt about that, but he is just a young guy. He is 19 years old and he is having fun.”

Watson has now won ACC Offensive Back of the Week honors the last two weeks and has been named the ACC Rookie of the Week the last three weeks.

Against the Wolfpack, he threw for 267 yards, ran for 62, threw two touchdown passes and ran for two more – and he did not play in the fourth quarter.

“Sometimes as coaches we have a tendency to take the fun out of the game at times, but we are going to let him have fun,” Morris said. “When he is having fun, we are all having fun.”

Watson says he is keeping all the fame and success he is having in perspective. He says he just thinks back to what one of his mentors—Michael Thurman—tells him every time he talks to him.

“He just tells me to think about my old days in pee wee ball and when I did not think about making mistakes,” Watson said. “I was just going out there and having fun. I just think about all of those times and I go out there and have fun.

“This is something every kid dreams about so we are blessed to have this opportunity. I just make sure I’m prepared each week and I go out there and have some fun.”

And he is having a lot of fun and so far, so is Clemson.

“That is what you want and that is what it is about,” Morris said.