Unbothered by individual 'joke' awards, Clemson pushes on to bigger trophies
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Clemson linebacker Isaiah Simmons was named a finalist Monday for the Chuck Bednarik Award, given to college football’s best defensive player
The standout linebacker was the only player on Clemson’s roster to be named a finalist for any individual award this season. That’s it.
No Maxwell. No Biletnikoff. No Davey O’Brien. Certainly, no Heisman. As far as individual awards season goes, the third-ranked Tigers will most likely not have any recipients hoisting any hardware.
If Clemson fans felt disrespected before when former quarterback Deshaun Watson missed out on the Heisman in 2015 and 2016, then the announcement of Travis Etienne not being considered for the Doak Walker running back award have definitely fired up the masses once again.
Head coach Dabo Swinney was one of those people.
“If there’s a running back award and Travis Etienne isn’t in the finals of it, what a joke,” Swinney said Tuesday. “Really. You just wait and see who gets drafted first. The type of career he is going to have, it’s unbelievable.
It’s difficult to grasp that the most explosive player in the country, a player who seemingly is rewriting Clemson’s record books on a weekly basis, isn’t viewed as a top-3 back in the country.
To be fair, the three finalists (Chuba Hubbard, J.K. Dobbins, and Jonathan Taylor) have had seasons they can all hang their hats on. Here’s how each of the running backs compare on paper.
Hubbard (So.) : 285 attempts, 1,832 yards (6.4 yards per carry), 20 touchdowns,
Taylor, Wisconsin (Jr.) : 261 attempts, 1,685 (6.5 yards per carry), 18 touchdowns
Dobbins, Ohio State (Jr.) : 219 attempts, 1,446 (6.6 yards per carry), 15 touchdowns
And then there’s Etienne, who has 66 less carries than Dobbins and 132 less carries than Hubbard.
Etienne: 153 attempts, 1,335 attempts (8.7 yards per carry), 14 touchdowns.
Obviously, what Etienne has done with his opportunities averaging 14 carries per game is the reason why many cannot believe he was not named a finalist. Etienne’s also only had four carries in the fourth quarter so far this season, which has averaged out to 10 yards per run.
“He leads the country in yards per carry,” Swinney continued. “He’s got 65 less carries than everybody else who is in there. That’s like four games of carries for Travis Etienne. Can you imagine what he would do with four more games? I don’t know what the leader is, but he’d be over that. This guy is off-the-charts special. But it just is what it is. He’s the best back in the country.”
Given his passionate comments, we asked Etienne what it meant to hear his head coach have his back like that.
“It’s crazy to think that coach thinks that of me and the player I am,” Etienne said. “It just goes to show the bond we have here and how we do everything here. It’s really unique and you really can’t find it at any place but Clemson.”
Like most of the other superstars on the offensive side of the ball, Etienne has been at the mercy of being taken out of games early due to the Tigers blowing the opposition out of the water. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence has thrown 19 passes in the fourth quarter in 2019. Justyn Ross and Tee Higgins have nine combined catches in the second half this season.
“Some of these award things, they just make me scratch my head,” Swinney added. “Tee Higgins, he’s as good as we’ve ever had and an even better young man. All he wants to do is win. If there’s a better receiver out there than him then hey, everybody’s got an opinion. But I’m taking Tee. When that draft rolls around you’ll see a lot of them take him, too.
“Half of these people that vote don't watch the games. If you really know what you're looking at, it's incredible how some of those things are decided. I don't even know if Trevor Lawrence will make first-team All-ACC this year. We ain't worried about any awards.”
Swinney has been known to play the underdog/disrespect card every chance he gets and many people nationally give him a hard time for it, especially after winning two of the last three national titles. And yet, it’s the lack of recognition for his players who have won 26 in a row that proves to be an example of the “disrespect” he keeps mentioning.
A reason for Clemson’s success is that the players don’t get caught up in the hype of the individual awards. Etienne didn’t seem bothered one bit when he was asked on Tuesday about the award snub.
“I can’t get caught up in individual awards when our main focus is to win the national championship at the end of the year,” Etienne said.
Co-offensive coordinator and wide receiver’s coach Jeff Scott, who was named a finalist for the Broyles award for assistant coach of the year, said Monday that all of the players have been focused on winning the team trophies, not the personal ones.
“We’ve been fortunate to win a lot of those with that being our focus. Sometimes, you can look at some of the guys that win that award - and they are great rewards - but sometimes they are on teams that are 8-4 or 7-5,” Scott said. “I’m most proud of the way our guys have not gotten caught up in their stats. A lot of those awards are based off of stats.”
If Clemson keeps winning and somehow manages to go 30-0 over the course of two seasons, those same players who aren’t finalists now will have had to shine on the biggest stages. Again.
When Watson didn’t win the Heisman in 2016, the Tigers went on to win the title and there weren’t many who doubted who the best player in college football was that year. Heck, it’s almost like these awards shouldn’t even be voted upon until January - after the most important games of the year are played.
Besides Simmons, the Tigers are continuing their push into championship phase with the focus being on the bigger task at hand. That seems to have worked out well for them in the past.
As Swinney pointed out, "after every game from here on out, they hand a trophy out and that's what our focus is on."