On Monday, September 24, 2018, Cartersville’s own Trevor Lawrence was named the starting quarterback for the Clemson Tigers. Lawrence will make his starting debut on Saturday against the Syracuse Orange at home.

The second-ranked player in the class of 2018, Lawrence finished his legendary high school career with a 52-3 record and two Georgia High School 4A state championships. To round off his accomplishments, Lawrence finished his senior year with 161 career touchdowns, passing former Clemson star quarterback Deshaun Watson’s high school career 155  touchdowns and 13,902 career passing yards.

For the first four games of the 2018-19 season, Kelly Bryant started at quarterback for the Tigers, while Lawrence split time at quarterback with the Clemson senior. Coaches watched to see which of the two would separate themselves enough to win the starting job.

Kelly Bryant played well at times, but didn’t perform well enough to keep  the position, often throwing passes into the turf or beyond his receivers. The Clemson offense also seemed to stall whenever Bryant played.

Whenever Lawrence was given the opportunity to play, he shined. In week 2 against Texas A&M, the true freshman threw a 64 yard touchdown pass on his first pass attempt.

Lawrence secured the starting job after a dominant performance against Georgia Tech where he completed 13 of 18 passes for 176 yards and 4 touchdowns. His season thus far has resulted in 39 of 60 passes for 600 yards, 9 touchdowns, and a mere 2 interceptions.

On Wednesday, the 26th, Kelly Bryant announced he will transfer after being replaced by Lawrence. Bryant is the fourth quarterback to transfer since Lawrence has arrived at Clemson.

With Trevor Lawrence at the helm, Clemson looks to secure a fourth straight College Football Playoff appearance and their third National Championship Game appearance in four years.