And there you have it.

The number one overall recruit for 2018 and the number one overall quarterback in 2018 just committed to Clemson. Trevor Lawrence is a generational talent. He is the best high school quarterback I have ever seen throw the ball. Yes, I know that is insanely high praise, but he has all the tools and intangibles to be a top NFL draft pick. Trevor is 6’5 and about 208 pounds from Cartersville, GA.

He has elite arm strength. He is extremely accurate with the football. He has elite feet, elite pocket presence and mobility in the pocket (lots of elite everywhere). He already is able to distribute the ball to a variety of targets and goes through progressions. No hitches in his delivery. He plays against good competition in the state of Georgia and hasn’t lost a game in two years. He doesn’t throw many interceptions. He can run it when he needs to and has plus athleticism (he won’t be a dual threat but can run the zone read and spread). He has a very high football IQ at this stage. Great family and grounding. Another really good person who will be an amazing face of the program.

This caught me personally off guard. I expected that he would commit sometime in the Spring. His recruitment has been a two team battle for awhile now. This is a huge loss for the Georgia Bulldogs, you can’t spin it any other way. Lawrence was once a major Georgia lean but Clemson was able to enter the picture as a viable candidate after visits during the summer. Lawrence wanted to end his recruitment before his senior season and commit to a school. The Clemson visits made him pause and pump the brakes. He was attracted to the Clemson culture and coaches, in addition to playing for championships. As the season progressed the emergence of Jacob Eason as the primary QB and his subsequent struggles helped to emphasize the contrasts in the two programs.

It was clear that one offense was putting a quarterback in position to win the Heisman and compete for a playoff spot, while the other was struggling to complete passes and compete for first downs. Kirby Smart hiring Jim Chaney as Offensive Coordinator also helped Clemson. The two systems are very different and Clemson showed how they could adapt their scheme to accentuate Lawrence’s superb skill set. Clemson coaches want a quarterback first and an athlete second. They showed Lawrence through Deshaun Watson that you can play QB at Clemson, not just be a good athlete.

The present and the future have never been brighter for Clemson.