Lawrence and Favre: Two Peas in a Pod
CLEMSON—Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence made one of the biggest turnarounds in Saturday's win against the Louisville Cardinals.
After starting out the game throwing for only 9 yards and two interceptions in the first quarter, Lawrence rebounded in a huge way, as he finished the game throwing three touchdown passes and completing 20 of 29 passes for 233 yards.
Lawrence's ability to bounce back after a rough start did not surprise head coach Dabo Swinney because bad things happen—even to one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.
"Well, I mean, you're not going to be a great quarterback if you can't do that," Swinney said. "Because when you play that position you're going to have some. I mean I watched Brett Farve in his last ever game. Brett Farve is one of my all time favorite players. In his last ever game, trying to go to the Support Bowl and he rolls to the right and he's played for 42 years. And what did he do? He throws across his body. I think I'm right. Right? And a ball gets picked.
"And he knows he ain't supposed to do that. He's played a million years. But he was Brett Farve his whole career because he was mentally tough. And because when you play that position, you're going to get judged on how your uniform looks. You're going to get judged on everything that you do."
Swinney understands that any quarterback for a program like Clemson will be subjected to almost unachievable expectations.
However, he also understands that Lawrence is a different talent.
"There's a certain mental toughness and thick skin and that windshield mentality," Swinney said. "Just let it go. Because I've been around players in the past that one bad play is going to lead to five more. You just count on it like clock work. But I'm really proud of him. And it's really nothing to say, Oh, he just made two terrible decisions. They dropping everybody. I mean he's just got to check the ball down and he knows that. But sometimes I think he's a little too confident in not only his arm but his receivers."
After Lawrence threw his second interception, Swinney spent a great deal of time on the sidelines speaking with his quarterback. What did he tell him? It was a 'stupid' throw, but Lawrence already understood that.
"It was stupid. I was like, 'What are you doing? What are you doing?' There's just no explanation," Swinney said. "I mean, it just that was just bad, bad football. I mean, what did they say to Brett Farve when he came off the field and he'd thrown it? What do you say to Brett Farve? You don't have to say anything because they know Oh my gosh, what was that? Just tried to do too much. And literally, when they're intercepting it from behind you because they're so deep and you're throwing down on the field, just you got to take what they're giving you. And he came back and did a great job.
"But yeah, just I want to know what were you thinking? And then I was just, well, that's stupid. No, that's is like the worst football ever. All right. Well, let's go to the next play. And so just tell him the truth. Really nothing else, nothing more you could say."
Swinney added that of Lawrence's 29 pass attempts and the 70 total plays, only four plays were bad. But those are the ones that everyone wants to focus on.
"People forget Deshaun Watson threw 17 interceptions his junior year, and 13 the year before that," Swinney said. "So, you just keep swinging, and that's what I did tell him. I was like, "Hey man, I heard Koby Bryant say one time, 'I'll go 0 for 30 before I go 0 for 12.' I'm making the next one." And just the mindset. And Trevor has that. Deshaun had that, Deshaun was the same way. I mean, Deshaun made some bad plays, too. But how did he respond? He always is going to go make the next play, and that's how Trevor is.
"He's the same, he's the exact same. He don't go in a shell, he don't pout. He just responds and he's not a... Nobody plays a perfect game. The best of the best of the best of the best in the world will make some bad plays from time to time. But again, he had four bad plays."
What makes Lawrence is the fact that he responded the way a champion does—and for Swinney, that is what he wants to focus on.
"It's all about how you respond," Swinney said. "Listen we can sit around and focus on him for he had four bad plays. I don't know how many plays we had in the game, but he had four bad plays and we can sit around and focus on that or we can focus on all them good plays. And that's what I choose to focus on. We'll learn from that. But man, what a job he did for the next three quarters or whatever. I mean, just awesome. Gotten rid of them and ran the ball tough, made good decisions and really got a lot of people involved. We had a bunch of guys touch the ball. So really proud of him."
