Lawrence is Embracing His Celebrity
CLEMSON — Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney has some advice for his Heisman Trophy front-runner quarterback Trevor Lawrence: If he wants to be able to go out in public, “shave his head. He might blend in a little bit more.”
But the Tigers’ long-haired rising junior quarterback is not shunning his fame or notoriety after leading the Tigers program to its fourth national title appearance in five seasons. He is embracing his fame.
“Hopefully I can use it for good,” Lawrence said. “It’s just crazy now everywhere I go — all the people that come up to me and just want to talk. It’s cool having that platform. It can be a lot if you don’t know how to use it and you’re not ready for it. But I think that I have learned over the past few months how to use it, and using it in the right way and being careful of what I’m doing.
“I’m really being cautious. Like I said, I just want to use it in the right way and hopefully encourage it.”
Now that football is preparing to start back for the Tigers, as they begin offseason workouts and mat drills, the focus has shifted from the fun to winning another national title on the field.
With Las Vegas pegging Lawrence as a favorite to win the Heisman and with the Tigers the odds-on favorite to win the national title this season, the expectations for the program have never been as high.
But the 2020 Tigers are not focused on living up to the outside expectations. Instead they are focused on themselves.
“I think that the only expectations you need to focus on are the ones you have for yourself and the ones that the team has as a whole,” Lawrence said. “We’re just trying to block out all the expectations that other people put on us, because this is a different team.
“People are going to say that we’re not as good this year, and people are going to expect us to do a lot of great things, too — so, I think just blocking that out and staying true to who we are and what our goals are is going to be really important.”
