College GameDay is at Louisville for Saturday night’s game against Clemson. Louisville QB Lamar Jackson is the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, topping Clemson QB Deshaun Watson, who’s now the Houston Texans’ starter. So, many of the Louisville crowd’s signs pointed out Clemson’s lack of Heismans.
Watson couldn’t help but note that Clemson walked away from last season with a much better trophy:
DESHAUN WATSON OFF THE TOP ROPE pic.twitter.com/Qkw1l9Up1z
— SB Nation (@SBNation) September 16, 2017
(Presented here via screenshots, since Twitter embeds aren’t good at showing one tweet’s reply to another, if both have images.)
That was Clemson’s second football national title, and Louisville doesn’t have any of those. Starting up trophy trash talk was walking right into this one.
Watson’s been dismissing the Heisman’s importance in the grand scheme since at least March, when he told Jon Gruden:
"When you beat Ohio State like you beat 'em, as the starting quarterback, and you beat Notre Dame in the rain — and Notre Dame was a heck of a team two years ago — you beat Oklahoma, great team, you beat Florida State in Tallahassee in the two-minute drill; I'm just curious. Does it tick you off? How can you not win the Heisman with that body of work? Even Alabama, you got them too."
Gruden's including a bunch of wins that didn't impact either Heisman race, seeing as they were either Playoff games or spread across two seasons. But we know what he meant.
"What do you gotta do to win that Heisman?" Gruden asked.
"Last year, I guess lose a couple games, and then win it?" Watson laughed. Jackson's team lost to Watson's team close, got blown out at Houston, and fell to rival Kentucky. However, Jackson finished with bigger numbers, and it's quite arguable that he outdueled Watson in Clemson.
"I just kinda keep it in the back of my mind. Like Coach Swinney said, I didn't miss out on the Heisman," he said. "They missed out on me."
Clemson vs. Louisville is turning into a nice little rivalry.