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One entered the college football universe with the impact of a meteor. The other’s debut was a mere twinkle in the sky.
Though their origins differ, their paths have led them to the same place, and on Saturday, Clemson’s Deshaun Watson will collide with North Carolina’s Marquise Williams in a cosmic event that could tilt the axis of the College Football Playoffs.
The dual-threat quarterbacks will clash at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium when No. 1 Clemson (12-0) kicks off against No. 10 North Carolina (11-1) in the ACC Championship Game. A win for the Tigers means they can punch their ticket to football’s Final Four, while a Tar Heels victory means . . . well, we’ll have to wait and see.
Either way, the contest will greatly impact the postseason, but it might also serve as college football’s Big Bang. The moment next generation, dual-threat passers collided to form the template of the modern-day passer.
Sure, there have been plenty of mobile quarterbacks in the past, but make no mistake, these stars have mastered the art of knowing when to throw and when to tuck and run. And you don’t need a Hubble Telescope to see that.
“It's really just the feel of the game. I don't go into a game thinking I'm going to run more than I'm going to pass,” Watson said during a press conference earlier this week. “So it just depends on what the (defense) is going to bring in the situation of the game and what happens that play. I just play in the moment, play in the game, one game at a time. So, that's pretty much it.”
It’s an art he’s managed to master. The 6-foot-2, 220-pound sophomore is currently the only player in the country with more than 3,000 passing yards and 750 rushing yards.
On the season, Watson, who was recently named the ACC Player of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year, has completed an astounding 70.4 percent of his passes to rank third in the nation and leads the ACC in passing yards (3,223), touchdowns passes (27) and passing efficiency rating (161.9).
The Heisman candidate’s play is a big reason Clemson has been No. 1 in every CFP Poll this year and why Tigers coach Dabo Swinney feels his team can win it all.
“If you look at any championship team out there, most of them have a great quarterback and leader,” Swinney told ACC.com. “That’s what we have. It’s a huge advantage when you have the best player in the nation, and I believe he is that.”
Sweeney is not alone in that assesment. Aside from the Heisman, Watson is a candidate for the Maxwell Award and the Davey O’Brien Award.
Coincidentally, the first start of Watson's Clemson career was against North Carolina in 2014. It was a debut that Tar Heels head coach Larry Fedora won’t forget, and neither will Watson. The freshman completed 27 of 36 passes for 435 yards and a school-record six touchdowns to lead Clemson to a 50-35 victory. He also rushed for 28 yards for a total of 463 yards of total offense, still the second-highest single-game total in his career.
“It was just very special that night what we did as a team and as a unit. So I'll never forget that moment and that day,” Watson said.
To say Williams’ introduction to college football was a bit more pedestrian is an understatement as big as his 6-feet-2, 225-pound frame. In 2012, Williams made his debut in the season opener against FCS Elon and completed five of six passes for 27 yards, rushing six times for 43 yards and a touchdown.
Fast forward four years and the senior QB has set more than 20 school records and is the fifth quarterback in ACC history to rush for more than 2,000 yards. Just a few weeks ago, the Tar Heels senior scribbled his name all over the UNC record books when he erupted for a school-record 494 passing yards and accounted for five touchdowns in only two-plus quarters of play to hand archrival Duke a 66-31 defeat. In the process, Williams established a new UNC mark for career touchdowns responsible for (83) when he scored on a four-yard TD run in the first half.
During his time at North Carolina, Williams has racked up a school-record 9,794 yards of total offense, which ranks seventh in ACC history, and has been responsible for 90 career touchdowns to rank fourth on the league’s career list.
As a passer, Williams has a powerful arm and can make every throw. As a runner, he may not be a scrambler in the mold of a Michael Vick or an RG III, but he is nimble enough to call designed runs for and to prevent defenses from dropping everyone into coverage.
“We feel like we can never be outnumbered by a defense,” Fedora said earlier in the season. “Defenses can decide they are going to take a phase away from you. They can decide they’re going to sit back there and drop eight and take the passing game away, but we feel like we can run the ball.
“If they feel like they’re going to stop the run and they’re going to put everybody up there to stop the run, that can happen, but we feel like we can’t beat you throwing the ball. Having a quarterback that can do both I think is the greatest threat to a defense.”
