Paralleling Tigers’ rise, Watson No. 1 on Heisman list, too

Just as candidates for college football’s playoff are whittled to a manageable number, so too are the Heisman Trophy candidates.

After his performance against Florida State, quarterback Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson is now the top name on several lists.

Surprised to learn Monday that SI.com moved him atop its Heisman Watch, Watson promised the notoriety would not become a distraction over the remainder of the season though he clearly enjoyed the news.

“I’m still going to continue to be myself and be a team player and keep doing what I’m doing,” he said. “It’s all good. It’s a great honor. But it’s still a lot of ball to play, and we’ll see what happens in December.”

For a half last week, Watson was ordinary, missing open receivers and making a mistake when he spiked the ball on third down near the end zone in the final minute, forcing Clemson to settle for a field goal.

“It was a learning lesson,” Watson said. “Every one is not going to be pretty. I’m going to make mistakes. Saturday I made that mistake on the spike. One mistake can’t affect me the whole game. We knew we had another half. We knew we had the better team.”

Frustrated by missed opportunities, Clemson didn’t come off script. Florida State hadn’t done anything uncharacteristic.

“We were right where we needed to be,” said co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliott. “You can’t abandon the plan. When things to bad you’ve got to stick with what you know.”

Each game this season has been a step forward for Watson.

His passing and total offense numbers aren’t on the same stratosphere as Trevone Boykin’s at TCU or Seth Russell’s at Baylor, both early Heisman possibilities. But Boykin threw four interceptions in a loss to Oklahoma State, Russell injured his neck and is out for the season, and Alabama held LSU running back Leonard Fournette to 31 yards.

Others are worthy of consideration – receiver Corey Coleman (Baylor) and running backs Ezekiel Elliott (Ohio State), Derrick Henry (Alabama) and Christian McCaffrey (Stanford) – but there’s a sense that as long as Clemson continues to win, Watson’s profile should continue to grow.

“I never really look at it (Heisman). The only time I really look at it is when it pops up on my TV or I see it on social media,” he said. “I don’t ever go looking for it.”

Watson brushed off a reminder that he and the team have done this in his first full season as a starter.

“Really, it doesn’t matter what age you are or what year you’re in,” said Watson, 13-1 as a starter over two seasons. Already he's fifth in Clemson touchdown passes (35).

“I embrace the position we’re in. We celebrate what we work for,” Watson said. “It’s hard to get to this point 9-0 and do the things that we did, so of course I enjoy it and celebrate it.”

The last Clemson team to begin a season 10-0 won a national championship 34 years ago. This week’s game at Syracuse will be played indoors on a rug and the early betting line favored Clemson by 26½. The second College Football Playoff ranking will be announced Tuesday night, and nothing happened to jeopardize Clemson’s perch.

Watson won a high school state championship in the Georgia Dome, and after Notre Dame and Florida State he’s not inclined to take his foot off the accelerator.

“If we’re the underdog it doesn’t give us extra motivation. If we’re on the top it doesn’t put extra pressure on us,” he said. “If we play to the standard, we’ll be fine.”

This story was originally published November 9, 2015 at 8:40 PM with the headline "Paralleling Tigers’ rise, Watson No. 1 on Heisman list, too."