As excited as Clemson fans are to have Trevor Lawrence back at quarterback, there should be just as much excitement for what the Tigers have at wide receiver.
In the College Football Playoff this past year, Tee Higgins and Justyn Ross dominated Notre Dame and Alabama. The two combined for 19 catches for 435 yards and four touchdowns as Clemson crushed both teams by 27 and 28 points respectively.
In both games, both players made unbelievable catches.
Against the Irish in the Cotton Bowl Classic, Higgins made a one-hand catch in the back of the end zone and got both feet in bounds on a 19-yard pass play from Lawrence in the Tigers’ 30-3 victory. He finished the game with 4 catches for 53 yards.
Ross caught touchdown passes of 52 and 42 yards in the Cotton Bowl, while hauling in six passes overall for 148 yards.
In the national championship game against Alabama, Ross continued his onslaught by grabbing another six passes for 153 yards, including a 74-yard catch-and-run in the third quarter of the Tigers’ 44-16 victory. The then true freshman had four catches for 129 yards alone in the third quarter, including two incredible catches down the far sideline in which he grabbed both footballs with one hand.
On the second catch, he twisted and snagged the ball with one hand as he was fallen out of bounds. He was still able to get a foot down in bounds to keep a Clemson scoring drive alive.
Higgins got the Tigers’ going with a 62-yard catch-and-run in the first quarter to set up Travis Etienne’s 17-yard touchdown run on the next play. The sophomore also hauled in a 5-yard pass from Lawrence for the game’s last touchdown.
It was not a simple catch either. Lawrence threw a rocket through a tiny window and Higgins went up and got it before taking a vicious hit from an Alabama defender.
The two 6-foot-4 receivers, who both weigh about 210 pounds, were difference makers in the CFP for Clemson. Neither Notre Dame nor Alabama had an answer for them as they physically dominated both secondaries and averaged 22.9 yards per catch.
But it just was not Notre Dame and Alabama that had issues slowing Higgins and Ross down. Higgins led the Tigers with 59 catches for 936 yards and 12 touchdowns. Ross caught 46 passes for a team-best 1,000 yards and nine touchdowns.
Together they averaged 18.4 yards per reception in 2018.
So, get excited about Trevor Lawrence, it is understandable. But get excited about Higgins and Ross as well. When it is all said and done, they just might leave Clemson as the best combo of wide receivers in Clemson history.
And with former receivers like Deandre Hopkins and Sammy Watkins, that is saying a lot.
Move over Alabama, Clemson is the new King of College Football. In our new magazine “Little Ole Clemson”: The Best “Little” Dynasty Ever, we examine not just the 2018 team’s run to being “the best ever” but examine the last four seasons and how Dabo Swinney turned Clemson into the new dynasty of college football. We also take a look at the role former athletic director Terry Don Phillips played. We go behind the scenes at the Tigers’ run to a second national championship in three seasons and the previous three national championship runs. It also features stories on the Power Rangers, the 2018 senior class, high quality photos and much, much more.
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