GAINESVILLE, Ga. — When Deshaun Watson came to school every day at Centennial Arts Academy in Gainesville, Georgia, he always came prepared.
“He was neat and so meticulous. He just took the time to make sure he was doing his work so well,” said Leslie Frierson, Watson’s fourth grade teacher and now principal at Centennial.
Watson’s desk was always very neat and his papers were always exactly where they were supposed to be. Frierson also said he had the neatest penmanship.
Then there was his math ability.
“He is such a good math student. He really just sees it,” Frierson said. “It is easy for him. Math is one of his many gifts. His numbers would line up. That is one of the things kids struggle with in the fourth grade when you are doing division and multiplication and you are trying to line things up or a simple addition problem.
“They don’t know that the seven should be in the one’s place because its wiggidy-wack. But not Deshaun, he was to the letter. Not him. If you wanted to mess your stuff up, that was fine, but his stuff was nice and neat.”
It is no surprise Watson was as organized and meticulous about his school work. He is the same way now. Watson comes into a meeting ready to go. His notes are prepared and he even has questions to fire at his position coach Brandon Streeter or co-offensive coordinators Tony Elliott.
“Deshaun, when he shows up on Mondays, he’s already got three pages of notes,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said. “He’s already watched all the games. He’s already got his questions. He’s already got his suggestions. He’s already got, ‘Listen, these are the problems. How are we going to handle this?’
“He’s just an unbelievable preparer. He’s obviously talented, but his will to prepare and his consistency in that sets him apart.”
It’s the reasons why coaches like Alabama’s Nick Saban or Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster have so much trouble trying to stop Watson.
The Clemson quarterback lit up Saban and Alabama in the national championship game to the tune of 473 total yards. He threw for 405 yards on 30 of 47 passing, and rushed for 73 more. He had four touchdown passes.
Foster threw everything, but the kitchen sink, at the Clemson quarterback in last week’s ACC Championship Game, but he was unable to stop him. Watson threw for 288 yards and three touchdowns, while running for 85 more and two more scores. For his performance, he earned Most Valuable Player honors for a second straight year in the championship game.
“He is smart. He is very smart. His intelligence is why he plays so good on the field,” Frierson said. “He can see ahead and sees what is happening and can watch things develop and have a plan in place. His organization is just such a benefit in so many areas in his life. He has just capitalized on that.”
Watson’s organization is why he is the first quarterback in 13 years to win the Davey O’Brien Award as the nation’s best quarterback in back-to-back years, and why he will be in New York City for a second straight year as a Heisman Trophy Finalist.
“You are not going to outwork him, and a lot of stars are not that way,” Watson’s high school coach Bruce Miller said. “He almost has a Peyton Manning mentality. ‘I’m going to outwork you. I’m going to watch film and I’m going to dissect you.’”
Saban said if he had a vote, he would give it to Watson.
“I think he’s a fantastic competitor and a great player and played a fantastic game against us,” the Alabama coach said. “I don’t get to see him all that much during the season, but I have a tremendous amount of respect for the guy. He did a fabulous job.”
Swinney says Watson is relentless when it comes to his preparation for a game.
“He just never shuts it off,” Swinney said. “I mean, you know some guys, they come over and they’re there in the meetings and they’re engaged in the practice and then they don’t really think much about football again until they come back again the next day.”
That’s not Watson.
“He hangs on to every word you said,” Miller said. “That’s him. That’s how he is. He was an excellent student. He was an excellent student on the film.”
Of course, Watson is still an excellent student in the classroom. The junior will graduate next Thursday at Clemson after being in school just three years.
“Graduating in three years is hard on anybody, if school is all you do and you take off to study the whole time,” Frierson said. “He has managed the celebrity, the status, the traveling and the … he has done all of that and he is graduating. That is huge, huge, huge.”
In Frierson’s mind, no matter what happens at the Heisman Trophy presentation on Saturday, Watson is already a Heisman Trophy winner. But when he walks across that stage next Thursday at Littlejohn Coliseum and receives his college diploma, “that right there is the win. That is the win,” she said.
–Photo Credit: Logan Bowles-USA TODAY Sports