Dabo Swinney will be 'surprised' if Trevor Lawrence doesn't go to the NFL in 2021
Clemson isn’t counting on Trevor Lawrence to come back to school in 2021.
Lawrence left the door open to a return to school for his senior season earlier in the week. And while Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said Thursday that he’d save a scholarship spot for Lawrence just in case, he’ll be stunned if Lawrence is back next season.
“We’ll certainly let him stay if that’s what he wants to do but I’d be surprised if he’s back with the Tigers next year,” Swinney said on SiriusXM. “But who knows. You never know.”
Could @Trevorlawrencee return to @ClemsonFB for the 2021 season? Dabo Swinney didn’t close the door on the idea when he joined @MarkPacker. pic.twitter.com/KnPAT9fBLW
— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) October 29, 2020
Swinney’s “who knows” is exactly the phrase Lawrence used when talking about his future with reporters on Tuesday.
“My mindset has been that I'm going to move on,” Lawrence said. “But who knows? There's a lot of things that could happen.”
Lawrence had previously said that his junior season was going to be his final one at Clemson. So while he didn’t necessarily give a ton of credence to the idea that he would come back on Tuesday, he also didn’t make it sound as clear-cut as he did previously.
But Lawrence’s coach doesn’t think he’s worrying about the draft right now. Swinney said Lawrence had a singular focus.
“He’s got one thing on his mind and that’s leading the Tigers and having a great season this year and all that stuff will take care of itself whenever the time,” Swinney said.
Lawrence is positioned to be the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NFL draft if or when he declares for it. He’s currently atop Yahoo Sports’ NFL draft analyst Eric Edholm’s mock draft. Edholm has Lawrence heading to the New York Jets and five quarterbacks overall going in the first round of the 2021 draft.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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