By Will Vandervort.
It’s obvious, there is just something different about Clemson when Deshaun Watson is the quarterback.
How different?
In the five games in which he played at least two quarters—that includes splitting time with Cole Stoudt in the S.C. State and Florida State games—the Tigers averaged 43 points and 530.8 yards per game. In the three games he started and played the whole game—UNC, NC State and South Carolina—Clemson averaged 42 points and 504 yards per game.
In his first game of playing longer than one quarter since the Tigers’ 41-0 victory over NC State on Nov. 4, Watson led the offense to 491 total yards, including 269 passing yards, in a 35-17 victory over archrival South Carolina.
Granted the Gamecocks’ defense was not very good this year, but neither was Georgia Tech’s or Georgia State’s, yet those two teams held Clemson under 150 passing yards and a combined 34 points.
What was the only difference in the three games? Deshaun Watson. Even in the Georgia Tech game, Watson totaled 83 of Clemson’s 190 yards in the first 12 minutes he played. The Tigers were about to go on top 10-0 before he got hurt.
The most amazing part about his performance against South Carolina was the fact he played the entire game with a torn ACL.
“I have said it since the day I started recruiting him as a freshman – he is special,” said offensive coordinator Chad Morris, who is expected to be named the new head coach at SMU later today. “Our relationship goes back five to six years now. Watching that young man, and able to watch Vince Young in high school play, I said at that point that this guy is special.
“I knew what Vince Young looked like at that age. Deshaun is special. He really is. He is a winner. I think the future is so bright for that young man. Obviously, we are a different team when he is in there.”
After injuring his left knee against Georgia Tech and then discovering he tore his ACL the Friday before the Georgia State game, Watson told head coach Dabo Swinney and Morris he wanted to play against the Gamecocks and he wanted to play in the bowl game, too. He wanted to finish the season for his teammates and then have surgery to repair his knee.
“It feels good to end the streak and be State Champions,” Watson said. “That is something everyone involved in this program has wanted to do for the last four years here.”
Wearing a knee brace that basically acted like his ACL, the true freshman diced up the Gamecocks on 14 of 19 passing and even scrambled out of trouble a few times. He set up his first of two 1-yard touchdowns with a nine-yard scramble from the USC 10.
Even when South Carolina brought pressure, Watson stood tall in the pocket and delivered accurate passes.
“That’s Deshaun. Just to see him running—and he didn’t do everything—that’s him. If says he is going to play, I trust that he is going to do everything he can with everything he has,” running back Wayne Gallman said. “That’s the kind of trust I have and we have in him.”
And that’s why the Tigers are so different when he is their starting quarterback.