Though he said it with a grin, Deshaun Watson meant every bit of it.

Earlier in fall camp, Watson was asked if he would hurdle a defender again to get into the end zone like he did in last year’s NC State game, especially given the fact he is coming off knee surgery. Without hesitation he smiled and pretty much said he will do whatever it takes to get the job done.

“I think we will all have that momentary holding of our breath, but at the end of the day that is what makes him special,” Clemson co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliott said. “You can’t take that away from him.”

It has been written, it has been talked about on the radio and it has been discussed on ESPN, should Clemson limit Watson’s ability to run the football in its offense to avoid any more injury. The reasoning behind the thought is understandable. In the 20 months he has been at Clemson, Watson suffered a shoulder injury, broke his right index finger which required surgery, then he tore his ACL in his left knee.

Fair or not, those mishaps have caused Watson to be labeled as injury prone so many believe Clemson is better finding ways to keep him healthy instead of putting him in harm’s way.

But is that the right way of thinking?

Watson came to Clemson as the No. 1 duel threat quarterback in the country. ESPN labeled him the future of college football before the start of the 2014 season.

Watson can do it all. He can throw with extreme accuracy (he competed 68 percent of his passes last year) and he has a strong arm with a very soft touch. In other words he can throw the long ball, can zip a pass between two defenders and can softly lift a ball over a defender’s hands in the back of the end zone.

When it comes to running the football, Watson has the natural instincts of a running back. He finds the small holes in the line and he has the vision to see a play develop before it even begins.

Watson was recruited to Clemson by former offensive coordinator Chad Morris, who is now the head coach at SMU, as the prototypical quarterback for his offense. In other words, the Tigers’ offense was made for a player like Deshaun Watson.

“With Deshaun, what makes him special, he plays on the edge,” Elliott said. “I think if you take that away from him, and you start to make him think he is injury prone, then you are going to take what makes him special away from him.”

So if Clemson believes running Watson six straight times gives them the best opportunity to win the game, like they did last year at Georgia Tech before he tore his ACL on a non-contact play, then that is what they are going to do. If the coaches believe they need Watson to throw the football 36 times like they did in his record setting performance against North Carolina, then that is what they will do.

If Watson needs to hurdle a player to get into the end zone or dives over the top for a touchdown, then they are going to let him do it. He is going to do it all with no limitations because those are all the things that make Watson different from other quarterbacks.

“I have had one conversation just to see how he is doing throughout the course of camp, but I really have not focused on that as much,” Elliott said. “Again, I don’t want to take away what makes him special … his ability to play on the edge, and like he said, ‘Let’s go get it.’ When he is ready to go get it, then you can’t take that away from him.”