Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence says he wants to play this season

There’s probably no active player in college football with more to look professional than Trevor Lawrence. He does not want to give up a year with Clemson.

The Tigers quarterback posted a tweet on Saturday that thousands of teammates are likely to agree with:

The tweet repeats what Lawrence told reporters on Friday after the practice, via ESPN:

“Everyone has thought about it, but since I made the decision to play, I haven’t thought about it,” Lawrence said. “I’m busy. It’s my last year here … and I’m super pumped.”

Lawrence is set to enter this season as a favorite of Heisman Trophy and the likely no. 1 pick in the 2021 NFL draft, a place that has been poor for him since he lifted the College Football Playoff Championship in 2019. His statement reflects the growing sentiment among college footballers, even as they try to push conferences into safe practices amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Many other college footballers, including Lawrence’s biggest contender for the Heisman and top pick, have made similar statements while keeping the fate of the season in balance:

Even the players who threaten to boycott the season over certain safety requirements want to play, they just want to play safe.

Of course, the longing of college footballers to play is not the most important factor here. It’s the coronavirus. It has always been the coronavirus, and so far colleges have struggled to figure out how to square the risk of an outbreak by playing a season.

Lawrence’s own Clemson program saw 37 COVID-19 cases at one point. While the medical risks of the coronavirus are reduced for younger, in-shape athletes, the risk is not zero, and the possibility of other contracts of the virus makes holding a season questionable in the midst of a pandemic.

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