During his Clemson career, Deshaun Watson accomplished a lot of things. He led the Tigers to their first national championship in 35 years, he accounted for more than 10,000 offense yards and 119 touchdowns. He won more national awards than any player in Clemson history.

But the two-time Heisman Trophy Finalist’s greatest quality during his time as a Tiger was his leadership. When the game was one the line and the offense needed a quick score to win the game, Watson would tell his teammates “let’s go be great.” And most of the time they were. Just go watch the end of the Tigers’ 35-31 win in the national championship game against Alabama for an example.

“That’s where Deshaun gave us a comfort level. He was in complete control of the offense,” Clemson co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliott said.

This spring Elliott and the rest of the Tigers’ offensive coaches are trying to develop that kind of leadership in their young quarterbacks. So far so good as Elliott says he has seen some good results from Kelly Bryant, Zerrick Cooper and Hunter Johnson.

“We want to continue to develop our quarterbacks just with the knowledge and the ability to command the offense,” Elliott said.  “They are young quarterbacks so we have to make sure we step back and that we are not putting too much on their plate too quickly so they can develop the adequate base knowledge to be able to get to that point where they can be able to command the whole system.”

It’s not just at quarterback where the Tigers have to develop more leadership. Clemson lost more than just Watson’s leadership. Tight end Jordan Leggett was a permanent captain like Watson, while Wayne Gallman was a leader of the running back group and center Jay Guillermo was one of the team’s more vocal guys.

“We had a lot of leadership, not just great players, and we had a lot of leadership walk out the door,” Elliott said.

Elliott said the offense’s lack of leadership showed during last week’s scrimmage, and that is something he would like to see them improve on when the second half of spring drills begin on March 27.

“There were some times in the scrimmage where you wanted more guys to be a little more vocal,” Elliott said. “They competed hard and they gave great effort, but taking that next step for some of these guys and encouraging them and saying, ‘let’s go out here and be consistent.’

“When the energy was back up and guys were locked in, we went right back down the field. Then there were times when the defense put some pressure on them and there was confusion and a lack of communicating. That’s when a leader steps in and says ‘get on my back and let’s go score.’”