Enjoyed the read on SPS’s QB battle article:

http://www.southernpigskin.com/sec/qb1-picks/

I want to talk about your conclusions about Kelly Bryant and Trevor Lawrence.  You did what a lot of reporters do which is to take a bunch of generic overall stats and form a conclusion.  Well here is a stat that I consider the most critical to why Trevor Lawrence should start if the battle is a tie after fall camp:

The great majority of KB’s completions are under 10 yards.  That is an easy way to make the stats look good for any QB,

Kelly Bryant’s passing numbers over 20 yards are horrible and great defensive teams like Alabama figured that out, stacked the box and dared him to throw deep…which the “stats” clear show is not his strength..

Reporters won’t watch every single snap a specific player makes like a dedicated fan base and won’t see the little things that makes a difference…For example, in the Spring Game, both Hunter Johnson and Trevor Lawrence looked much better than Kelly Bryant and KB had an extremely frustrated look on the way he was carrying himself and his facial expressions.  This year he has a real competition for the job unlike last year.

Clemson needs a QB, with the WR talent we have, that can create plays on the move and KB will tuck the ball and run first if he can’t find a WR very wide open.

Trevor Lawrence is Clemson’s future and with this being another Nation Championship level team, we need the QB battle decided going into the Furman Game to give our number 1 guy as many reps as needed so when we going to Texas A@M we will be ready.

To be blunt, the ACC is down right now and this year and last year wasn’t much better.  We should be able to win 10 games this year if a worse case scenario occurred and had to start a walk on QB with our talent. 

Sorry…Earning the right to be the man sounds nice, but this isn’t the Tommy Bowden era or is it Dabo’s first 5 years when winning 10 games, maybe the ACC, a win of FSU and South Carolina was considered a great season.

Agreed. Frankly lazy reporting by SP but as you say, it is the nature of covering so many schools.
There is absolutely NO question that TL’s ceiling is tenfold KB’s. My argument is why not take advantage of our defense that can overcome a few freshmen mistakes. It’s not like KB doesn’t make mistakes either, he just plays Uber safe.
Look what Fromm did for UGA last year! TL is a notch or two above Fromm with a legit WR corps that UGA would die for.
Start Trevor early, bring Bryant in for short yardage and red zone, win a NCC!

My argument is why not take advantage of our defense that can overcome a few freshmen mistakes.

Agree 100%.  All teams are going to be a little rusty for the 1st 2-3 games.  If Trevor Lawrence can go 3-0 in the first 3 games, the speed of the college game should have have settled in and will be ready for the ACC schedule.

Just read an article in T-Net about the QB competition:

https://www.tigernet.com/story/football/Swinney-says-QB-separation-will-probably-take-place-in-the-games-17120

It sounds like this has the making of Cole Stoudt/DW4 all over again.  The fact that a 5th year Senior is essentially “tied” with a true Freshman tells me a lot.

I would like to think Dabo is playing cat and mouse with Jimbo Fisher to keep him guessing

CU_Tigers4life - 14 August 2018 09:24 AM

It sounds like this has the making of Cole Stoudt/DW4 all over again.  The fact that a 5th year Senior is essentially “tied” with a true Freshman tells me a lot.

Exactly right.

Dabo released the Depth Chart today and Kelly Bryant is the starter.  Not a surprise.  I just hope he has improved. If we lay an egg to a Texas A&M due to Kelly Bryant Dabo will catch a lot of heat.

I am pulling for Bryant to do great.  But if he doesn’t learn to throw deep passes (over 20 yards) against good defenses we will get tripped up again

If someone truly believed Lawrence would be starting they are crazy.  Any real Clemson fan knew this.  I don’t see how Bryant can play #1 all year unless he is on a different level than last year.  He got us to the playoffs, he deserves to start 1, I just don’t see it lasting long.  Lawrence is just to good, not a matter of if Bryant can do it or not.

I hope Dabo has the sense to pull him at the right time and not to late.  I expect Lawrence to get some really good snaps during the Furman game, game should be well in hand.

Posted on r/CFB, figured it fit here.

“In the CFP era, 3 of 4 QBs on field in 2nd half of title game for eventual nat’l champ didn’t start the season opener. Deshaun Watson is the only exception.”

So that means Lawrence taking us to another national championship right??

This is a good time to revisit this thread and see where we are…

Kelly Bryant, has not improved in the passing game at all..If anything, he is more predictable than last year.  His release is slower and he telegraphs most of his passes.  He rarely throws intermediate to deep passes unless the receiver is so wide open anyone can make the catch.  He also doesn’t go throw his progressions well.  He lives of the WR screens and this offense rely’s on TE’s for the additional blocking when KB is in rather than catching a few passes a game which has been a big part of our offense.

Trevor Lawrence is the real deal.  He plays with a winning swagger and like Deshaun Watson, even with a mistake like the INT he threw, everyone just knew he would get it back…His release is insane and he is smart enough to throw away a a ball rather than force a bad pass most of the time.  He really separated himself this week.

We all know that TL will be the true starter soon.  KB was still a big reason we won the A&M game.  TL still has some stuff to work on but it’s getting hard to say “oh the offense is just running better because of luck” when TL is in.  It operates better at all levels. 

Surprisingly TL is even more low key laid back than DW4 was.

More Data with a comparison:

But wait, these numbers can’t be right!!  He didn’t get a fair shake remember….

The Last 7 Drives by Each QB Sums it all up

I think this is a great time to review this article and re-evaluate things.

How About now on Kelly Bryant and Trevor Lawrence?

Kelly Bryant at QB - Bama wins again. Good kid, just not as gifted throwing the ball as TL and would have likely been a repeat of last year. Great move, Coach!