Photo by Austin Silvey - Evening Sports Page
Pete Fiutak, of College Football News, released an article on Monday, April 16, titled as "Daily Five: Ranking the Realistic Top Heisman Contenders."
His top contender was Bryce Love, the running back from Stanford who decided to return for his senior season rather than declare for the NFL Draft.
Just behind Love in Fiutak's pecking order, is the talented freshman quarterback at Clemson, Trevor Lawrence.
He discusses all the talent that Clemson has returning and coming in this season and goes on to say that "The only thing missing is a quarterback with franchise NFL skills....the buzz kicked in about a guy who not only looks ready to take over the starting job, but take it to a whole other level."
As he mentions in the article, and as everybody should already know, Lawrence is a special & unique talent. He's tall, athletic and has a strong arm...but he is also a true freshman who is extremely thin and still developing and adjusting to a college system and speed of the game.
Not to mention the guy who holds the starting spot still after leading the team to a 12-2 overall record, a third straight ACC Championship and third straight CFB Playoff appearance, in Kelly Bryant.
No doubt Lawrence's ceiling is higher and overall talent is better than Bryant's but that is not intended to be a disservicing statement towards the senior quarterback.
I believe Bryant will be the starter at the start of the 2018 season and barring injury or an astounding regression by Bryant (or astounding progression by Lawrence), I don't foresee him giving up the position either.
While I agree that Lawrence has overwhelming ability, talent and potential, it's way too early to be calling him a "Top Heisman Candidate" when he may not even start a game this coming season.
I believe Lawrence will be a Heisman contender at some point in his career at Clemson but there is absolutely nothing to suggest that he will be one this year, especially not one of the top ones.
In my opinion, if Clemson is going to produce a potential Heisman candidate this season, it will be the sophomore running back, Travis Etienne...
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