ATLANTA – On Thursday evening, ESPN held its annual Home Depot College Football Awards Show at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta to announce the winners of some prestigious college football awards.
Beforehand, the four head coaches preparing for the College Football Playoff participated in a press conference to discuss the upcoming weeks.
Here is what we heard:
“We are honored to be back in it. It is a great experience. We are happy for our fans and university and appreciative to our administration for giving us this opportunity,” head coach Dabo Swinney said in his opening statement.
When a question was asked regarding the voting period for the Heisman Trophy, Alabama head coach Nick Saban said that his vote would go to Deshaun Watson if he had any input.
“I think he is a fantastic competitor and a great player and played a fantastic game against us. 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,” Saban said.
Watson was named the nation’s best quarterback on Thursday evening when he won the Davey O’Brien Award for the second year in a row.
“It’s awesome. It is a good feeling always, being able to have your name tossed in the hat with all these awards, especially the Heisman and all these other things and being able to travel and see people and go different places. It is a lot of emotions, but I am just soaking it in and being appreciative,” the Clemson quarterback said.
While Watson has earned many awards and accomplishments in his time at Clemson, he always appreciates the support he is given, especially from his hometown of Gainesville, Ga.
“It was great actually. I just know that my hometown has always been behind me and always been there for me since day one regardless of my decision making on where I was going to go. It has been great just to be able to have that support behind me.”
On Saturday, Watson will be in New York City as a finalist for the Heisman Trophy, but walking the stage at graduation next week is an even bigger accomplishment to him.
“Walking across the stage and getting that degree is probably one of the biggest accomplishments for my family and my mom. That’s probably one of the things she will probably cry about is me walking across that stage,” Watson said. “That’s probably going to be the biggest accomplishment this weekend.”
Watson also had the opportunity to meet and hang out with fellow Heisman Finalists Lamar Jackson, Jabril Peppers, Baker Mayfield, and Dede Westbrook.
“I have hung out with all those guys, I talked to them and we’ve been having a good time,” Watson said.
However, Watson’s favorite memory from the red carpet on Thursday night was getting to make his fans happy.
“Probably just hanging out and signing things for especially there is a little kid’s football team over there, so they are obviously hyped up, so being able to sign things for them and take pictures.”