Lawrence 'Excited' to Finally Know ACC Schedule

Trevor Lawrence did anything and everything he could to prepare for the 2020 season during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

After the Clemson quarterback took two weeks off of football once spring practice was halted and classes moved to online, he returned to Tiger Town to run on his own and throw a few days a week. 

He went back home to Cartersville, Ga., in May, where he worked out at his old high school to stay in shape. Then he returned to campus with his teammates in June and began the summer workout season and now fall camp. 

However, through all of that, he tried his best to keep preparing for No. 1 Clemson's Week 1 opponent...until it changed. The ACC announced July 29 it was scrapping the 12-game, 8-conference game format for a shorted 10-game, one non-conference slate, but it was expected for most of last month that was going to be the case. 

"All this happens and you're like, 'I guess we're still playing Georgia Tech (in the first game,' so you keep preparing," Lawrence said. "Then the schedule gets blown up and gets changed." 

Lawrence, who's committed to playing this fall, had been working a little bit each week to get ready for Sept. 3 opener in Atlanta with the Yellow Jackets, but that was replaced by a road game at Wake Forest on Sept. 12 when the league officially announced its full schedule Thursday. 

"We're really excited. We have a schedule," Lawrence said. "We know the order at least now."

Up until then, it was strange to not know who they were going to open against. That first game is the one teams can prepare the most for, but it was deep into the summer before they found out it would be the Demon Deacons. 

We were having a senior meeting and I had to ask Coach Swinney, we were talking about fall camp starting, 'Do we even know who we're playing first?' It came out a couple days later," Lawrence said. 

That's at least one uncertainty no longer on Clemson's mind. Teams generally like to prepare as much as possible during the offseason for their opponents. Coaches and players will heavily scout during the summer months and put together what they think each foe will look like while trying to expect the unexpected. 

For Lawrence and the Tigers, they've had less time than usual to prepare for three new teams on the schedule: Miami (Oct. 10), Pittsburgh (Nov. 28) and at Virginia Tech (Dec. 5). Georgia Tech was moved to Oct. 17, and the rest of Clemson's ACC foes, including the Nov. 7 trip to Notre Dame, remained the same, although much of the order changed. 

"I think the ACC did a really good job keeping Coach Swinney and us in the loop on what was going on," Lawrence said. "It wasn't like we were waiting on someone to say something online. We kind of knew what was going on...which was really good. No one knows how to handle this perfectly."