Spring Wrap: Trevor Lawrence takes a step forward

Trevor Lawrence helped lead the Tigers to the National Championship last season

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Mon Apr 15 08:12:44 GMT-04:00 2019

Another spring practice is in the books, and we have a long, hot, summer of waiting and wishing while counting down the days until the ACC Kickoff, head coach Dabo Swinney’s media golf outing and the start of fall practice.

That means we have a lot of time to look back at the spring and look ahead to the fall and we will get all of that started this week with a look at the offense. Today we will take a glance at the quarterback spot.

Starter Trevor Lawrence didn’t post eye-popping statistics during the spring game, completing a 19 of 34 passes for 232 yards and a touchdown. It was the type of game he wanted heading into the offseason.

“I’ll probably take a week or two off from throwing,” Lawrence said. “We’ll be lifting the next two weeks with Coach (Joey) Batson, so we’ll do that, then we’ll get some time off. We’re not going to have a lot of mandatory stuff, so everyone’s just doing work on their own and getting better. We’ll do a lot of stuff this summer as far as throwing together.”

Swinney saw a quarterback who is in command of the offense.

“This time last year he was just trying to prove it, kind of getting in line,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “Now it’s a different dynamic for him – he is in command, and now we need him to lead, not get in line.

“This spring he’s able to study 15 games of himself; last year at this time all he had was high school tape. With that comes confidence and a little more attention to detail.”

Lawrence said he feels like he improved throughout the spring.

"I feel like I have taken a step forward," he said. "I wouldn’t say it was the best spring that I feel that I could have had, but I think I learned a lot and got better for sure. With leading for one and then just with the new guys at first we had to get our timing down and all that. I feel like we got a lot better as a team. We grew closer together, so it was good."

Lawrence said that time has flown by with the end of spring practice.

"It’s been a lot different," he said. "It seems like it was not too long ago we were just playing last season. Now we are already finished with spring, so it has flown by. Yeah, it’s been a little different, but I feel like once you get out there, it’s the same thing, trying to practice and get ready for the season."

What can we expect from Lawrence next fall? He will start the season atop many of the Heisman watch lists, and that campaign will closely parallel the Tigers’ fortunes. He gets his first big test on August 29th in the season opener against Georgia Tech, a Thursday night game in Death Valley that features the debut of the ACC Network.

Two weeks later, Texas A&M comes calling in what might be the Tigers’ biggest out of conference matchup during the regular season.

Lawrence smiled when I mentioned that he doesn’t have to do it by himself – he has a lot of weapons at his disposal.

“We got a lot of play-makers. I mean, obviously the new guys Frank (Ladson) and Joe (Ngata)—they had a great spring, and Travis had a good spring,” Lawrence said. “Tavien (Feaster), Lyn-J (Dixon), those three guys had an awesome spring, got a lot better…We’ve had a good spring kind of just learning from each other, encouraging each other, so it's been really good.

“That’s a lot of good guys right there.”

TOMORROW: CHASE BRICE