2B❚FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2019❚USA TODAY SPORTS
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
football player, it would be me.”
Yeah, it sounds hokey – until you un-
derstand that Herbert used to be that
kid. He grew up in Eugene, walking to
games at Autzen Stadium with his
grandfather, father and brothers (OK,
sometimes his mom dropped them off
before games, but afterward they rou-
tinely walked a mile home to the fam-
ily’s ranch house in Eugene’s Cal Young
neighborhood). And that on those
walks, he wore Joey Harrington’s No. 3
jersey, or later LaMichael James’ No. 21.
“It was a wonderful time to go and
watch,” says Mark Herbert, Justin’s fa-
ther, describing a period when the
Ducks started wearing all those wacky
color combinations and, perhaps not
coincidentally, winning all the time –
and when in Eugene, affection for the lo-
cal football accelerated into intense
passion yet retained a significant mea-
sure of old-time charm.
“With the uniforms being changed
and the players being so accessible,” he
continues, “it was a perfect time.”
As No. 13 Oregon nears its opener
against No. 16 Auburn on Saturday in
Arlington, Texas, its hopes of returning
to national relevance – and maybe of re-
turning to the College Football Playoff –
hinge on a hometown hero who chose to
stick around for one more season. But
what makes the whole thing unique is
that, in many ways, Herbert is still that
kid in the jersey.
“His (story) is truly like the dream be-
came a reality – at an extremely high
level,” Oregon coach Mario Cristobal
says.
But that’s not quite right. Herbert’s
dream wasn’t nearly this big.
Despite his success at Eugene’s Shel-
don High School, Oregon was very late
in offering a scholarship. If it had not
come, he’d have been happy heading off
to Montana State to play with his older
brother Mitchell. Playing for the Ducks?
“I don’t think he ever thought about
it,” Mark Herbert says. “You might as
well have built a rocket ship and flown to
the moon. It wasn’t gonna happen.”
But when then-coach Mark Helfrich
finally called, Herbert was ecstatic over
the thought of jumping into the suit of
an Oregon football player. And catch the
meaning here: He was excited by the
idea of just wearing the uniform.
“I never thought I’d play,” he says. “I
thought junior or senior year I’d see
mop-up time, and that’s all I ever want-
ed to do, was just to play for Oregon.
Maybe if I was at a different school or
maybe if the circumstances were differ-
ent – but that’s truly how I feel.”
Instead, Herbert turned heads as a
freshman during preseason practices,
then became the starter – and a star –
during a 4-8 season Ducks fans would
otherwise like to forget. With a strong
arm and an athletic 6-6, 238-pound
frame, he very quickly drew attention
from NFL scouts.
By last season, he was faced with a
choice: Leave school to enter the NFL
draft, where he was projected as a cer-
tain first-rounder and maybe the first
quarterback off the board, or he could
play one more season for the Ducks, in
hopes of leading something special.
Herbert graduated last spring with ageneral science degree, with the grades
and resume to apply for medical school
if he wanted. While that goal has been
deferred – maybe for good – it’s worth
noting that as he was growing up in Eu-
gene, the NFL was never really a goal.
Adding to the equation: Herbert’s
younger brother Patrick, a tight end,
would join the team this season, creat-
ing at least the possibility of a Herbert-
to-Herbert touchdown connection.
Finally, there’s the potential that with
a star quarterback leading the way, Ore-
gon might be ready to return to national
relevance.
“It’s not so much ‘unfinished busi-
ness,’ ” Herbert says, “but it’s another
chance, another opportunity to play
with our guys. And to play football on a
stage and in an environment that I love
and I’ve grown up in. And to be there
with my younger brother.
“You can’t get another year of college
football like that. As soon as you go to
the NFL, it’s a business. I was fortunate
enough to realize that, and I think I
made the right decision.”
For Herbert, playing football for Ore-gon is the furthest thing from business.
“When you look at where he grew up,
and the way he grew up, and the unique-
ness of his situation, his decision made
100% sense to anyone who knew him,”
Mark Herbert says.
Justin’s maternal grandfather, the
late Rich Schwab, became known as
“Schwabby” as a receiver for Oregon in
the early 1960s – and forever after, too,
in Ducks’ circles. Schwab’s ongoing
connection to the football program pro-
vided more than occasional access to
the program and likely cemented Jus-
tin’s passion for the Ducks. For years,
the Herbert family has used Schwab’s
seats in Section 12, Rows 32 and 33, on
the north side of Autzen. During those
walks home afterward, the collective
mood varied with the scoreboard.
“When the Ducks won, we were all
happy and cheerful,” Herbert says.
And when they lost? “Sad and defeat-
ed,” he admits.
It helped, then, that Herbert’s child-
hood largely coincided with the rise of
Oregon’s program to prominence –
many wins, few defeats, and oh, so
many highlights to savor. There’s a post-
er on his bedroom wall of Harrington
catching a touchdown pass against Tex-
as in the 2000 Holiday Bowl. Though he
began going to games as a toddler, Jus-
tin’s earliest clear memory is of watch-
ing Dennis Dixon on TV in 2007, faking
the Statue of Liberty, then running for a
TD in a blowout win at Michigan.
His all-time favorite Duck? LaMi-
chael James – and no, though they’ve
met, Herbert has never told James that.
He did tell Harrington about the poster,
though, which made Harrington laugh.
“It didn’t surprise me,” Harrington
says, “because that’s just the kind of guy
he is. He’s real. He’s down to earth. And
he’s a kid, right? I mean that in the best
way. He hasn’t been spoiled and he
hasn’t been tainted. He’s still enjoying
his ride.”
Or maybe Herbert is still savoring, for
as long as he can, all those walks home
from Autzen.
“It’s been a tremendous journey,”
Mark Herbert says. “It’s been unbeliev-
able to watch this transformation. Being
that little kid who watched the Duck
games to now. ... It’s unique, and it is not
lost on Justin. It’s not lost on him.”Herbert
Continued from Page 1B
Justin Herbert, right, poses with older brother Mitchell while wearing the jerseys
with the number of former Ducks quarterback Joey Harrington.HERBERT FAMILYIn the opinion of everyone here and
to the surprise of no one elsewhere, he is
expected to be even better in his second
season. After taking the country by
storm as a true freshman, Lawrence is
learning to adapt to a level of pressure
and expectations unmatched by any
quarterback prospect in decades, if not
the history of the sport.
“I just try to enjoy everything,” Law-
rence told USA TODAY Sports from a
hallway behind the end zone. “I think
this camp it’s something I’ve really been
focused on, enjoying the moment. For
me, I’m really hard on myself as far as on
the field, just ... knowing I’m not going to
be perfect and just enjoying the moment
and everything with those guys.”
After practice, Lawrence bobbed and
weaved off the field and through a star-
struck group touring the stadium. He
stopped to pose for a picture, paused
again to speak to a young fan and then
took a right turn, trailed doggedly by a
Clemson tight end from the 1960s look-
ing for a photo and to share details of the
size of the starting quarterback from his
days with the Tigers – about 6-2 and 147
pounds, he said, and Lawrence, at 6-
and 220 pounds, gave a thumbs-up.
At this time last year, Lawrence lived
in relative anonymity, stopped “every
and now then” as a five-star incoming
freshman, he said. As a rising sopho-
more, he wears a hoodie when he goes
out in this college town, constantly
aware that “you’ve just got to be ready to
make an appearance.” He gets mobbed
when attending his girlfriend’s college
soccer game in the unincorporated
community of Clifton, South Carolina,
population 500-something. There are
few places where he can escape – except
perhaps on the opposite side of the
country in California, where he made
several trips this summer and was no-
ticed only once.
“Out there, it’s cool, there are just so
many famous people out there,” Law-
rence said in explanation. “You see Le-
Bron James walking down the street out
there. So no one really said anything to
me. So that was kind of cool.”
At this time last year, Lawrence was
simply an overwhelmingly talented
quarterback prospect, obviously rare
but not unique. In the months since,
he’s become something extraordinary:
Lawrence turned in a sparkling, nearly
perfect freshman season; led the Tigers
to the national championship by shred-
ding Alabama, with three touchdowns
and no interceptions; and drew compar-
isons to every great quarterback in his-
tory, including one of his idols, Peyton
Manning. Clemson begins its title de-
fense Thursday against Georgia Tech.
“He’s a really, really special quarter-
back,” Simmons said. “There aren’t very
many like him.”
There is, in fact, no one like Law-
rence, at least not in the current Bowl
Subdivision. No one has his physical
gifts. No other quarterback has this
early in his career been anointed an NFL
franchise quarterback. Only one other
quarterback in FBS history, Oklahoma’s
Jamelle Holieway in 1985, has led his
team to the national championship as a
true freshman. No quarterback in 40
years had defeated two top-five oppo-
nents by 25 or more points in the same
season, as Lawrence did in throwing for
a combined 674 yards and six touch-
downs in College Football Playoff games
against Notre Dame and Alabama. No
one this young has been this good.
And for as much as Lawrence has al-
ready achieved, no one will be expected
to achieve more across the remainder of
his college career. Through his produc-
tion and his potential, and somewhat
begrudgingly, Lawrence has become the
face of the sport.“I feel like there are so many more
things I can do, just in terms of leader-
ship and also decision-making,” he said.
“Greatness is always striving for that
next step. That’s what greatness is. It’s
not necessarily that you get to this point
and you’re great. I don’t think that’s nec-
essarily how it goes. It’s that constant
strive. Someone might be a great player,
but I think, just judging myself, I’m not
there yet.”
From an outside perspective, he al-
ready checks the boxes: Lawrence is the
consensus Heisman Trophy favorite as
the star quarterback on the top team in
the preseason Amway Coaches Poll,
with the opportunity to win multiple na-
tional titles and rewrite a Clemson rec-
ord book only recently updated by one
of his predecessors, Deshaun Watson,
who is now a pro himself.
NFL teams are aware. After January’s
win against Alabama, longtime person-
nel director Gil Brandt wrote on Twitter,
“If I was running an NFL team, I’d be
making trades for as many 2021 picks I
could get my hands on.”
No Clemson player has won the Heis-
man. Watson came closest, finishing
second behind Louisville quarterback
Lamar Jackson in 2016. Being the first
“would be awesome,” Lawrence said,
but focusing on the personal achieve-
ment “can’t even be one of your top
goals. Because just being a quarterback,
that throws off the whole team. You can
tell if that’s something that’s more im-
portant than winning or team success.”
He’s placed an emphasis on gaining
weight, part of a long battle to round out
his long frame. Lawrence is “eating all
the time,” well beyond the point of en-
joyment. (“It is nice to be able to eat
whatever I want, though,” he said.) He’s
pored over tapes of every game from last
season, looking for ways to streamline
his mental approach. He’s made pur-
poseful efforts to be more vocal.
“I think just going through last sea-
son and also watching film after the year
was over, I was seeing parts of my game
that I wanted to improve upon,” he said.
“And then mentally, just being more
confident and really being the leader of
this offense and this team. I feel like I’m
stepping into that role.”
He’s been driven “to figure out what
he can do better,” Elliott said. “You can
tell that he has no complacency and he’s
eager to be the best version of himself.
So he’s dialed in. And he’s at a point now
where he wants the keys to the car. Hewants to be able to drive the offense on
his own. He’s earned that, too.”
He’s heard the comparisons, read the
praise on Twitter and elsewhere, and
shrugged it off.
“I don’t want to be the next anybody,”
Lawrence said. “I want to be my own
person, my own player. I think I have my
own style. That’s just how I do things. I
want to do things my own way.”
And he’ll do it as the center of atten-
tion. Others in the recent past have
come under similar scrutiny while still
underclassmen: Tim Tebow at Florida
and Johnny Manziel at Texas A&M, to
name two. Each ultimately went from
being praised and nearly universally ad-
mired to being starkly evaluated and au-
dited for weaknesses; from a coverage
perspective, the final two seasons of Te-
bow’s college career were largely spent
focusing on his negatives. Such is life for
college football’s biggest star, where ev-
ery mistake will be magnified by the
weight of expectations.
Even now, Lawrence seems more
burdened by his life outside rather than
inside football; relative to shouldering
the celebrity that has come with his suc-
cess, playing has been easy.
“I wouldn’t say it bothers me. I think
it can be a little frustrating at times,”
Lawrence said. “You’ve got to be really
emotionally and mentally ready to go
out and just be a people person. I’m an
introvert naturally, so it’s a little harder
for me than some people.
“You know, you have a long day and I
just want to go and do whatever, see a
movie, go out with my girlfriend or
whatever. Just kind of be left alone and
enjoy my night. From that standpoint, it
can be a lot. But it just comes with the
territory, I think.”
The hype and attention strike at the
root of Lawrence’s story: As much as
has already been placed on his shoul-
ders, beginning with the generational
label placed upon his talent, even more
is anticipated. So much, in fact, that it’s
worth wondering if there’s any way his
career can possibly meet expectations –
since satisfying expectations might
mean being not only the best quarter-
back in college football, which he is al-
ready, but one of the best ever.
“To put a ceiling on Trevor, that’s un-
fair for me to do,” Elliott said. “He’s got
all the skills. He’s got all the potential.
You can tell that he has no complacency
and he’s eager to be the best version of
himself. He’s driven to be great.”Lawrence
Continued from Page 1B
Trevor Lawrence, who says he’s an
introvert by nature, provides an auto-
graph during Clemson’s trip to the
White House. BRAD MILLS/USA TODAY SPORTS