I have had a bunch of people ask me over the last five months or so, “Why do I think Clemson can get back to the National Championship Game this year?” There are several reasons why I believe they can get back.

The first reason is simple. Clemson has the best player in the country playing quarterback.

The first time I personally got to watch Deshaun Watson play in a game, like a lot of you, was at Georgia his freshman year. But even before the game, during warm ups, I could tell this guy was different. I even it expressed that to my colleague Hale McGranahan at the time.

Hale was sitting next to me in the press box and I said to him, “That kid looks like an All-American.” It was just Watson’s demeanor. The way he carried himself, you could tell there was something different about this guy. It wasn’t confidence. All quarterbacks have confidence, but what Deshaun Watson has few others have.

Watson’s teammates picked up on it as well. That’s why they play so hard for the guy. They know he is special, too.

I remember one high school coach telling me many years ago, when I first got in the business, “That if a player or athlete makes what he is doing look so easy and he does it is so effortlessly then you know that player is special.”

A guy like Deshaun Watson comes around once every 40 years in a program. If you don’t believe me, think back to the last time Clemson had a player like him. Of course that guy also wore the No. 4, and before Watson, Steve Fuller was considered the greatest quarterback the Tigers have ever had. Why do you think he is the only quarterback in the Ring of Honor? Why do you think he was one of the first four people enshrined in Clemson’s greatest honor back in 1994?

Before Watson, Fuller was considered the most decorated athlete Clemson ever had. He was the first football player at Clemson to have his number retired. Why do you think Dabo Swinney came and asked Fuller if they could bring his number out of retirement for Watson? Why do you think they honor him with a patch on Watson’s jersey? Steve Fuller was special and was the first of his kind at Clemson.

Before he is done at Clemson, Deshaun Watson might be even more special, if he already isn’t. Watson has already become the first quarterback in Clemson history to earn Consensus First-Team All-American honors. He is the first quarterback to win both the Davey O’Brien and the Manning Awards as the nation’s best quarterback. He is the first quarterback in FBS history to throw for more than 4,000 yards and run for another 1,000 in the same season.

He is the first Clemson player to be a Heisman Trophy Finalist.

I remember last August Watson telling the media, on the first day of fall camp, that Clemson was going to the National Championship Game. It was the first time a player in my 12 years of covering the Tigers had said that. But it wasn’t what he said that made it stand out. I could tell that he truly meant it. You knew that he was serious and that he was confident enough in himself to go do it.

There are several reasons on why Clemson can make it back to the National Championship Game this year, and it all starts with Deshaun Watson.

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