College football: 30 best college quarterbacks of all-time
player. 879. . QB. Tigers . Deshaun Watson. 17
30 best college football quarterbacks of all-time: 17. Deshaun Watson, Clemson football
Career stats:
- 10,168 passing yards
- 90 TDs
- 32 INTs
- 67.4 completion percentage
Coach Dabo Swinney kept scratching his head and pointing to the stats. For whatever reason, Deshaun Watson simply kept getting overlooked. After following the normal trend of a first-year QB’s struggle with the bigger and faster men as opposed to those on a high school football field, Watson took off in year two with 4,109 yards passing yards, 35 TDs and only 13 picks.
No matter the name on the opposing helmet, Watson and his Clemson Tigers ran right through them. There was nothing and no one that could stop them from going on to a perfect 12-0 season in 2015. ACC championship? Won it. Orange Bowl? Won that too.
Despite the ridiculous numbers and wins, Watson would come up short in the National title game only to come right back the following year as if nothing ever happened and led his team to a National Championship. With two stellar years in his back pocket, Swinney advocated for his starting QB to win the Heisman. But while he would receive back-to-back invites, he never took home the award. He did, however, grab the ACC Player of the Year and ACC Offensive Player of the Year Awards.
By the time Watson left for the big leagues the following year in 2017, Swinney told NFL teams that his man should be first across all draft boards. No one listened as the Houston Texans took him with the 12th overall pick. Since then, every team that passed up on him has regretted it.
Although Watson didn’t get the recognition he deserved in the mind of Heisman voters of NFL executives when he first arrived on their draft boards, we won’t make the same mistake here. He may have only two outstanding seasons to his name but when you can rack up over 8,000 yards in that time frame and win countless awards in the meantime and not to mention a National Championship, then, you should be on this list.