What’s next for Clemson QBs after Lawrence shines? Dabo weighs in

Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence put on a show Saturday night at Georgia Tech.

The freshman from nearby Cartersville threw four touchdown passes, including three in the second quarter, in Clemson’s 49-21 victory.

As he did the first three games of the season, Kelly Bryant got the start at quarterback for the Tigers. But Clemson’s offense struggled early, failing to score in the first quarter.

Lawrence entered the game on the first series of the second quarter and led the Tigers on a seven-play, 74-yard touchdown drive.

Lawrence played six series total and Clemson scored touchdowns on five of them. The only drive Clemson did not score with Lawrence in the game came when he threw an interception on a screen play. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said after the game the interception was running back Travis Etienne’s fault.

Swinney was asked if Lawrence did enough to earn the starting quarterback job moving forward and said he is not ready to announce a starter for next week’s matchup against Syracuse.

“Well, he certainly played great. I thought Kelly came back in and did a good job too, but you know what, we’re going to enjoy it tonight. That’s what we’re going to do. We’re not going to set depth charts here in post game press conferences,” Swinney said. “We’re going to celebrate a win, enjoy it, and as coaches we’ll get in the office tomorrow, we’ll evaluate and watch all the tape. And we’ll go from there.”

For the game Lawrence finished 13 of 18 passing for 176 yards with four touchdowns and an interception. Bryant was 6-for-10 passing for 56 yards.

Lawrence felt going into the game that he was ready to have the best performance of his young career. The Georgia native went out and did just that.

“I thought I played well. Besides one screen that bounced off a lineman that they caught and intercepted, besides that play I think overall I made pretty good decisions,” Lawrence said. “Every week just getting more and more comfortable and trying to figure everything out.”

Whether or not his performance was enough to be named the starter for next week’s game against Syracuse it remains to be seen.

“I don’t know. We’ll see,” Lawrence said. “I think Kelly played well too. I don’t know if it’ll happen. I’m just going to keep attacking every week and try to do all I can to help the team.”

This story was originally published September 22, 2018 at 8:26 PM.