NEW ORLEANS — Nick Saban couldn’t do it. The entire ACC couldn’t do it. Ohio State and all of its NFL prospects couldn’t do it.
Nobody, through two seasons, has been able to defeat Trevor Lawrence, Clemson’s wunderkind quarterback most experts believe is the best prospect at his position since Andrew Luck.
You have to go all the way back to high school and the Georgia state playoffs to find someone who has been able to beat Lawrence.
“That was a fun game — that was a lot of fun,” John Thompson recalled in a phone interview with The Post.
Thompson was then the defensive coordinator for Blessed Trinity in Roswell, Ga. — after a lifetime as a college coach, working at 18 different colleges over a 38-year coaching career. He was the defensive coordinator at Northwestern State in Louisiana when LSU coach Ed Orgeron played there, had a two-year stint as the East Carolina head coach and also served as Orgeron’s defensive coordinator for a season at Ole Miss.
“I’d never seen a quarterback that good in high school and he’s still the best that I’ve ever seen,” Thompson said.
Blessed Trinity was a big underdog in the second round of the Georgia 4A state playoffs. Lawrence and Cartersville High School had already won back-to-back state championships. He had won 41 consecutive games, was the top-ranked prospect in the country and had thrown 40 touchdowns and just one interception that season. But that day, Nov. 17, 2017, he walked off the field on the short end of a 21-17 result.
Thompson and the Blessed Trinity coaches pored over film in the lead-up to the game. Every team went the conservative route against Lawrence, dropping back in zone, flooding the field with defensive backs. It never worked.
“We went the direct opposite direction,” said Thompson, who is now retired from coaching and running a store, The Clothes Horse, with his wife, Charleen, in Alpharetta, Ga. “We blitzed an awful lot, probably 70 to 80 percent of the game we pressured him, and it wasn’t just nominal pressure. We were trying to bring one more that they had to block every time. We got him out of sync, they dropped some balls and we ended up making some plays. We made a bunch of plays on him, we hit and sacked him.”
Thompson, 64, deferred credit to his players, a talented group that went on to win the state title. It included a number of Division I players, such as running back/linebacker Steele Chambers (Ohio State) and linebacker JD Bertrand (Notre Dame). Blessed Trinity led 14-3 at the half, but Cartersville came back, going ahead 17-14 on a punt return for a touchdown. With less than a minute left, Blessed Trinity quarterback Jake Smith, who is now playing at Air Force, completed a 27-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Davis.
“I’ve coached a lot of games — I’m sure there’s over 400 games — and that was one of the highlights of my career,” Thompson said.
Blessed Trinity repeated as state champions the following year, as Lawrence went undefeated as a freshman at Clemson. It won it all again this year.
Thompson and Orgeron spoke recently, but the retired coach said he didn’t offer any insights into stopping Lawrence. Orgeron, though, said Thompson did share a few thoughts on how to beat the Clemson quarterback. He just didn’t want to share them.
“We’ll see if it works,” Orgeron said.
Thompson is somewhat conflicted. He would like to see Orgeron win a national championship, but he wouldn’t mind Lawrence’s unbeaten streak continuing either.
“Maybe he’ll never lose again,” Thompson said with a laugh. “That’d be all right. That would be fun, wouldn’t it?”