In April of 2018, Brent Venables had seen enough of Trevor Lawrence in about a month's worth of practices.

"I'll tell you this," he confided in a casual moment away from the football field. "We're not going to have the same problems throwing the ball we had last year."

Last year would've been 2017, when an inability to throw and catch downfield passes was the biggest reason Clemson's season ended in a CFP semifinal undressing against Alabama.

Memories of that year, with Kelly Bryant following in Deshaun Watson's expansive footsteps, were rekindled with haunting irony at various points this season.

As in: There were various points this season when Clemson fans would've given a limb for Bryant, the quarterback they thought wasn't any good in the aftermath of 2017 and the first few games of 2018.

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Bryant had 13 touchdown passes and eight interceptions during that 12-2 step back from the 2016 national title.