Rookie QB to be defense’s first test
No. 1 pick Lawrence on Smith’s radar since his high school days
Before his second season as the coach at Illinois, Lovie Smith was visiting prospects around the country. He took a trip to Georgia to check out some players and saw quarterback Trevor Lawrence for the first time.
Lawrence, who had committed to Clemson the year before, was entering his senior season at Cartersville High School in 2017. Smith was impressed with the quarterback who would win a national championship as a freshman, break Deshaun Watson’s Clemson passing records, become the first overall pick in the 2021 draft and make his starting debut Sunday against the Texans at NRG Stadium.
“Coming from the college game, I feel like I know a little about him,” Smith said Thursday. “In college, you recruit a lot of schools and look at a lot of players. Their high school had a lot of players at that time, and everybody was talking about him. We didn’t have much of a chance to get him.”
Smith was interested in a couple of Lawrence’s teammates.
“I remember watching him work out early in the morning during an offseason workout,” he said. “Pretty impressive.”
Lawrence will try to impress Smith again on Sunday, but this time, the quarterback’s performance will be for real. As the Texans’ first-year defensive coordinator, it’s up to Smith to devise a game plan he hopes his players will execute to perfection, contain Lawrence and help the Texans begin the season 1-0.
“I think he’s special,” safety Justin Reid said. “He has tremendous arm talent. He’s got some mobility, but he’s still a rookie, and he’s going to do rookie things.”
Lawrence is one reason the Jaguars are three-point favorites.
“He’s the No. 1 overall draft pick, and you want to give him the credit and respect he deserves,” Reid said. “But it’s his first game when they count, so we’ll see how he does.”
Opponents are running out of adjectives to describe Lawrence, who’s 6-6 and likes to run when he can’t find open receivers.
“Everything that should have been said about him has been said,” Smith said. “He’s got all the physical ability in the world. He’s been a good quarterback for a long period of time. He can make all the throws. And he doesn’t know much about losing a game.”
That’s because Lawrence didn’t lose much at Clemson. He won a national championship as a freshman, lost a national championship game as a sophomore and lost in the Sugar Bowl as a junior before entering the draft as an underclassman.
The reason Lawrence is playing for the Jaguars is because they finished with a league-worst 1-15 record last season. He could help them become the NFL’s most improved team under first-year NFL coach Urban Meyer.
Meyer hired two longtime NFL offensive coordinators, Darrell Bevell and Brian Schottenheimer, to help Lawrence make a smooth transition into the NFL. Bevell is the offensive coordinator and Schottenheimer the passing game coordinator.
“(They’ve) been good coaches for a long time,” Smith said. “We competed against those guys in the past. When we look at video, it starts with the head coach, and he’s an offensive guy. We have a little bit of history. We have to look at everything they’ve done.”
Smith and Meyer coached Big Ten teams at the same time in 2016-18.
“The first game of the season with two new staffs, you never know,” Smith said. “Whether it’s Trevor Lawrence or another quarterback, it’s always about what we do. There’s a way we like to play defense, and part of playing good defense is being able to control the quarterback as much as possible.
“To be a good quarterback, you have to have good skill people around you. He has excellent wide receivers with size and speed. Good running backs. Any offensive line coached by George Warhop is going to be pretty good. It’s a big challenge for us.”
The biggest challenge starts with stopping the run. Meyer knows the Jaguars have to utilize a consistent running game to keep Lawrence from having to throw more than the coaches want against Smith’s defense.
The Texans have to contain second-year running back James Robinson.
“The way we play football, it always starts with stopping the run,” Smith said. “We play gap-control defense like most people do. We feel like we have enough talent to be successful.”
Smith said he’s going into the season happy with where his defense is at stopping the run, something they did worse than any team in the league last season.
In three preseason games, the Texans allowed 65.3 yards per game, including 2.6 per carry.
“It’s about being disciplined, trusting your teammate and being in your gap,” Smith said.
The Texans’ defense is stocked with veterans who came from other teams. There’s not a rookie starting against the Jaguars.
“They came here for a reason,” Smith said. “Most of the guys on our defense, most of us, have something to prove.”
Smith believes having so many veterans, including some who are well-traveled within the league, could be an advantage to start the season for a team that’s rebuilding and destined to lose a lot of games this season.
“When you look at our defensive roster, we’ve got a lot of guys from different places, and they’re used to change and dealing with the unexpected,” he said. “When you’re a veteran, you know you have to be ready for just about anything.
“Watching them come together has been pretty neat. They bought in to what we would like to do defensively and who we’d like to be.”
Against the Jaguars, the Texans will provide a snapshot of who they’re going to be this season. Will they be somebodies or nobodies?