Gut Check Time for Lawrence, Tigers

Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence had it easy through his first 19 games as a college quarterback—all of that changed last week when the Tigers had to cling to a one-point win against the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence had it easy through his first 19 games as a college quarterback—all of that changed last week when the Tigers had to cling to a one-point win against the North Carolina Tar Heels.

The Tigers had faced adversity before against Pittsburgh in 2016, at Syracuse in 2017—but Lawrence was not a Tiger at that time. In fact, the only time, as a starting quarterback, that the Tigers faced any kind of a struggle was in 2018 against Syracuse, but Lawrence was knocked out of the game and did not finish.

Saturday's game was the first time that Lawrence had faced an opponent with the game on the line in the fourth quarter, and head coach Dabo Swinney loved what he saw.

"(The adversity) great for our quarterback, too. Trevor has had zero adversity since he came to Clemson." Swinney said. "He didn't play a whole lot at Texas A&M (in 2018). He came back and we won every game by 20+, so he hadn't had any adversity. And he made enough plays Saturday, but he made some mistakes, too. I learned a little bit about Trevor, too. His leadership was tremendous. He was trying to lead that defense, never pouting and just displayed so much mental toughness. Gutsy. I hadn't seen him with a game on the line in the fourth quarter since he came to Clemson."

Lawrence echoed the thoughts of Swinney, saying that he believes, not only will he better in the long run, but the Tigers will be better for having played a tough game.

"Of course, you'd rather just win every game by 30. I think this game will make us a lot better," Lawrence said. "Last year against Syracuse, similar-type game. Fifth game of the season. And from there, we just got better. It's up to this team now. Are wee going to get better? Or are we just going to stay who we are right now. Last year that team got better every week, and it really just came together. So we'll see if we do that.

"Teams aren't going to come out here and lay down for us to look better. It They have a great team, and they play great. Coach Swinney said it a lot, they should've been 4-0 before tonight, and they've played some great games, especially the second half. They were really good second half team. We knew they weren't going to lay down for us. They played a tough game. You got to give it to them. Coached really well. They made some big plays."
Even thought the Tar Heels made some big plays, the Tigers were still able to escape with a victory.

But the Tigers understand that if they are going to make another run to a national championship that they will have to use this win as motivation because the next time they may not be as fortunate.

"There's been a game, I feel like every year, the past four years or so in this program where it's been close or we lost," Lawrence said. "We know it's hard to win. Sometimes it's easy to forget that when you win so many games by so many points.

"This game is only going to make us better. Obviously we'd like to win every game, by four touchdowns, but it's going to bring us closer, going to make us better, and show us how to appreciate every win, and like tonight just finding a way."