Watson aims to lead Tigers quietly, decisively

Deshaun Watson won’t dazzle with eloquence, preferring to limit his flamboyance to the field.

While interviews seem like a necessary nuisance for the reigning face of Clemson football, the TV cameras appeared shortly before Watson arrived at a media briefing on Monday and disappeared minutes after he finished. Of the 10 players trotted out for the first session of game week interviews, there was no doubt who every reporter wanted five days before kickoff.

If he noticed, Watson mightn’t have been pleased. He speaks with a soft voice, not quite monotone, and tries to deflect attention to his teammates and coaches.

“I just let them talk,” he said of the pundits. “I know how I can play and what I can control. I just go out there and play each game the same.

“If I play my best, everything else just takes care of itself.”

Ideally, Watson wants to command an offense with a short fuse.

“We’re going to be simple and play fast and do what we do,” he said. “We want to be the most explosive offense in the country.

“We have all the tools and players around and coaching staff to help us out. The potential is there. We just have to go perform and do it.”

Watson said his only goal this season was “to go undefeated.”

“All the stats on Saturdays, I don’t focus on that,” he said. “As long as we get the W (win), I just go out there and do what I can do.”

As a freshman a year ago, he prepared for his college debut against Georgia as the backup to Cole Stoudt.

“A lot of people thought I was nervous at the time, but I wasn’t,” he said. “Once I stepped on the field, it was ‘go’ time.”

This season, it’s clearly Watson’s team.

“It’s no different,” he said. “I’m always going to prepare myself as if I’m going to play.”

“It’s still the same. They knew I was going to play, so they were leaning on me and Cole at the same time. I took advantage of it.”

Good fortune has afforded him chances to meet others who have managed to succeed despite the spotlight’s glare, quarterbacks Cam Newton and Matt Ryan, who know the pressure that accompanies high visibility and higher expectations. Watson said they told him to be himself, “never change and just keep grinding.”

“Having that mindset that you want to be the best and you can be the best. That’s the best advice you can get,” he said. “I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing and having fun.”

Some of the freshmen have asked about his first experience running down the hill during pregame ceremonies at Clemson home games.

“I was talking to Christian Wilkins, (and) he was telling me about how he was excited about Saturday,” he said. “I was giving him a little info (that) it was going to be a little wild the first time, especially coming down that hill and seeing all the orange.

Watson said he remembers vividly but struggled to describe.

“It’s a feeling that I couldn’t explain,” he said. “Every time I get off that bus and stand on top of that hill and looking over that field, it’s a different feeling.

“My first time it was kind of nuts, but I really can’t tell you how I was feeling at that moment.”

Nursing a torn ACL that required surgery after the South Carolina game, he did not come down the hill. Watson intends to savor the full experience Saturday, that the knee feels great, and “I feel really good.”

Watson added that he would “take it slow.”

And 80,000 cameras will be there to capture the occasion.

This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 9:48 PM.