Deshaun Watson on Clemson Tigers: 'We're Not Going Anywhere

If anyone would be able to recognize a legendary performance it would be Houston Texans starting quarterback, and former Clemson Tiger, Deshaun Watson.

And that was exactly what he saw Jan. 7 at Levi’s Stadium, as his former program dismantled the Alabama Crimson Tide by a final score of 44-16.

“That was as dominate a performance as I think I’ve ever seen,” Watson recalled of the Tigers’ win over Alabama. “I have not seen a performance like that, ever. I mean, everything they wanted to do they did.”

Those comments mean something coming from Watson.

It was four years ago that Watson carried the Tigers to a 14-1 season, before ultimately falling short of the magical 15-0 record in the 2016 College Football Playoff National Championship to the Crimson Tide.

However, one year later, Watson led the Tigers to another 14-1 record—this time the national title game was their 14th win, not their first loss.

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Watson said. “The feeling of doing something that hadn’t been done in like 30 years, it was special. But to do it the way they just did it, that is something that is hard to beat.’

Watson had long been deemed a generational quarterback—the type of quarterback that most schools would love to have play for them just once. But the Tigers have a second quarterback with that kind of talent in Trevor Lawrence.

Watson has played against the best of the best in the NFL and in college, but what he witnessed that night in the Bay Area of California had Watson searching for appropriate words.

“That was impressive. I mean, for a true freshman to come into that kind of environment and put on the show that he did was very impressive,” Watson said. “I really don’t know what more I can say. He was very special.”

Watson had watched Lawrence on television, and while he believed that he could get the job done the way in which he picked apart the Crimson Tide defense—to the tune of 347 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions— garnered praise from the greatest Tiger quarterback.

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“He made plays. We had receivers out there making plays, running backs out there doing their thing, but he was special,” Watson said. “When you look out there at him, making the throws that he made, he didn’t look like a true freshman. He doesn’t look like a college guy. He looks like a guy that has been in the league for a while.”

Many around the nation had the Tigers pegged as a flash-in-the-pan program that rode the hot-arm of Watson to their first national title in 35 years that would revert back to the status of a good, but not great program in his absence.

But Watson never thought about his alma mater in those terms.

In fact, after watching his Tigers capture their second national title in the last three seasons, he believes the Tigers are just getting started.

“We aren’t going anywhere,” Watson said. “I can tell you one thing, that this Clemson Tiger team is a machine that is just getting started. We are just beginning our run.”