Trevor Lawrence does not want to take anything away from what players from Ohio State, LSU and Oklahoma accomplished this year. However, the Clemson quarterback admits the Tigers were a little annoyed just one player from their team was a finalist for a national award.

Only linebacker Isaiah Simmons, who won the Butkus Award as the nation’s best linebacker, was a finalist at the College Football Awards Show in Atlanta last week. Lawrence, along with two-time ACC Player of the Year and running back Travis Etienne and ACC Championship Game MVP and wide receiver Tee Higgins did not make it to Atlanta.

“I don’t ever want to discredit anything anyone else has done. I think everyone else up there is a great player and deserved it, but I think it is how the story has been written and it works perfect for us,” Lawrence said. “We are happy where we are at. It would have been great to have some guys there, obviously, just for them and for our program. But we are happy where we are at and we are glad we get the chance to prove ourselves.”

Clemson was the only program from the four College Football Playoff participants not to have a player invited to New York as a Heisman Trophy Finalist. LSU had winner and quarterback Joe Burrow, Ohio State had quarterback Justin Fields and defensive end Chase Young and Oklahoma had quarterback Jalen Hurts.

For the Tigers it was a fitting way to how the whole 2019 regular season went.

“All year, we have kind of taken the backseat a little bit. It’s whatever,” Lawrence said. “That’s just how the season has gone, but it has worked out perfect that we have been in the backseat and under the radar.

“This is the time now where we actually get to prove ourselves.”

Clemson (13-0) will get the opportunity to prove itself in the College Football Playoff Semifinals when it plays No. 2 Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl on Dec. 28 in Glendale, Arizona.

Lawrence feels there are two reasons why the national media has tried to hold the Tigers down this season.

“I think it is just every year people want something new. Last year, we were the new team. Alabama won the year before and we were kind of up and coming. We knocked Alabama off, and everybody loved us and after that it was, ‘Okay, who is going to win next year,’” he said. “They want something new and that is kind of how it is. We have a close game, and everybody thinks we are not any good. That is just the way it was all year.

“We are fine. We got the opportunity we wanted, and we are right where we want to be. But those are two of the things that happened.”

To Lawrence’s point, the Tigers are the first preseason team No. 1 team since 1966 to go undefeated and finish the regular season ranked No. 3 in the country in the Associated Press Poll. But it was not just the media that doubted the Tigers. The coaches also dropped them to No. 3 in their poll and the CFP Committee opened their rankings by placing them at No. 5 behind Penn State who went on to lose two games.

Despite it all, Clemson put its head down and just went to work, while completing a second straight undefeated regular season and its third in five years. The Tigers have won 28 straight games, the nation’s longest winning streak.

After the South Carolina game, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney had heard enough and he expressed his feelings on how his team has been portrayed and disrespected a little for going undefeated. He says, instead of talking about what his team and players have accomplished, all anyone wants to talk about is how they have not played anyone and that their schedule is weak.

Swinney also mentioned how some in the national media have changed their tune a little bit in the last few weeks since he brought it to everyone’s attention, and they are starting to back pedal from their original statements.

“People kind of contradict themselves. They will say one thing one week and then they will change their mind and say something else. It is just funny how that happens all the time,” Lawrence said. “We talk about it all the time and we use it as fuel. He kept it quiet for a long time, but at some point, this is his team and he wanted to defend us, and I respect what he did.”

Clemson is back in the College Football Playoffs once again. Get the latest official Clemson CFP gear right here!