Swinney on Deshaun Watson: "I'm really proud of him"

by Tony Crumpton - Assoc. Editor - Thu Jan 11 09:01:15 GMT-04:00 2018

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was in Houston on Wednesday for the Bear Bryant coach of the year award ceremony and spoke to reporters on various topics including his former pupil Deshaun Watson.

"I think that's about 80 percent of it (Deshaun Watson as a person)," Swinney said about Watson's success. "I really do. How you are wired. Champions are born inside of you before you ever become a Champion on the outside. How he thinks, how he is wired, how is life has been shaped, his experiences that he has to draw on...all of those things have made him very UNCOMMON. He is very uncommon and very unique. I'm really proud of him and I know he has a lot of great moments ahead."

Swinney reminiscenced about Watson suffering an ACL injury during his freshman season at Clemson.

"I've been through this with him. Ironically his freshman year with me, he was having an unbelievable year off the charts for a freshman and had non-contact (ACL injury) on his other knee," Swinney said. "He planted and cut. He actually played the next game with a torn ACL against South Carolina. It was the most unbelievable performance that I've ever seen to this day personally. He put a brace on it and went to play. I didn't think he could do it but he said 'I could do it this' and played and won the game. He had surgery the next week and was right back at it and didn't miss a game for the next thirty games straight with the National Championship games. That right there hopefully will give Texans a lot of hope that he will bounce back and get back to work."

. @ClemsonFB HC Dabo Swinney on keeping up with the #Texans as he called them “Clemson West” & @deshaunwatson , the person. @KPRC2 @ClemsonTigers pic.twitter.com/V1NIonri59
— Adam Wexler (@awexlerKPRC) January 10, 2018

Dabo Swinney on @deshaunwatson: "I've been through this with him. Non-contact on the other knee (freshman year). He actually came and played the next game with a torn ACL in South Carolina. Most unbelievable performance I've ever seen. Put a brace on it and went and played." pic.twitter.com/wB224W4PMR
— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) January 10, 2018

Dabo Swinney with LOTS of great stuff on the next Michael Jordan @deshaunwatson #texans #abc13 pic.twitter.com/PXLoMaBFhX
— David Nuño (@DavidNunoABC13) January 10, 2018