When Trevor Lawrence first came to Clemson in January of 2018, diehard Tiger fans knew who he was. But the rest of the people did not as much. He could blend in as much as you would expect a 6-foot-6, 215-pound guy to blend in who has long-flowing blonde hair.
Though he stood out, there were still a lot of not-everyday-football people who did not know Trevor Lawrence the football player.
But when you become the first freshman quarterback in 33 years to lead your team to a national championship and you combine to throw for 674 yards and six touchdowns against historically two of the greatest football programs in the College Football Playoff—Notre Dame and Alabama—and you do it with such ease, everyone is going to recognize you.
“Things are a little different,” Lawrence said after Clemson’s fourth practice of the spring Monday. “There is this whole new platform after winning a national championship. I think it is like that for a lot of guys. It is an adjustment, but it has been really good.”
After gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated following his MVP performance in Clemson’s dominating win over Alabama in the national championship game on Jan. 7, life is different for Trevor Lawrence.
“You have to be ready going out,” he said. “It is a little different than it used to be. You have to be ready to take pictures and talk to people and be really social when you go out. You just can’t go out and be by yourself and do your own thing.
“I think it is picking and choosing those spots when you want to do that.”
Lawrence says he wants to use his new-found platform for good. He wants to be a good role model for young people.
The sophomore learned a thing or two about his platform and the influence he can have, good and bad, last month when he was involved in an intramural basketball incident that went viral on Twitter. A video shows the Clemson quarterback shoving a fellow student to the ground after the student tried to set a pick on Lawrence about 80-feet from the basket.
“I think everything is just a learning experience,” Lawrence said. “You can say that you wish you handled things differently, and I do. But, like you said, everyone is watching, and I just have to be smarter than that.
“At the end of the day, I’m playing a game. It gets competitive. That is how it is. Me and him, we shook hands afterwards, you know. It gets blown out of proportion, but I have to know, just because it is me, it is going to be put everywhere and made a big deal. So, I just need to be smarter than that.”
So, Lawrence is adjusting and is learning how to use his platform and use it in a positive way.
“It is just crazy that anywhere I go, all the people that come up to me and talk to me and just want to talk. It is cool having that platform,” he said. “It can be a lot if you do not know how to use it and you are not ready for it.
“But I think I have learned over the past few months, I’m learning how to use it and how to use it in the right way and just being careful in everything I am doing and just being cautious. I just want to use it in the right way and hopefully just encourage people.”
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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