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CLEMSON | ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit has been so floored by Oklahoma's Caleb Williams that he predicted the Sooners' new sensation at quarterback will be "the face of college football" over the next three seasons.
It gets your attention when the game's most respected media voice says something like that about a player.
The same way it got all of our attention when he said the same exact thing about Deshaun Watson early in 2014.
Three games in, Clemson was at Florida State and it was clear the Cole Stoudt starting experiment was over. Watson came in and elevated not just an offense but an entire program. You could not just see it but feel it.
The Seminoles managed to pull one out of their rear ends that night courtesy of some epic Clemson miscues including a bad snap at the goal line -- and, we'd argue, not starting Watson to begin with -- but there was no doubt as to the best player in the stadium.
"A star is born," Herbstreit said that night.
A few weeks later, Herbstreit said Watson "will be the face of college football" over the next few years.
This is probably not fun to read here in the present, because you know Herbstreit nailed the Watson assessment and you know Williams seriously considered Clemson.
Surely it has to sting to see Williams showing strong evidence that he's a generational talent while Clemson's next presumably generational talent has struggled through the Tigers' 4-2 start.
The main obstacle to Williams choosing Clemson was DJ Uiagalelei, who came in a year before and was supposed to be the next big thing. Williams chose Oklahoma, where at worst he'd have to spend one season behind Spencer Rattler before Rattler left for the pros.
The best-case scenario for Williams and Oklahoma has unfolded, as Rattler never looked comfortable and Williams looks like the same type of spectacular force-of-nature presence that Watson did seven years ago, and Trevor Lawrence did three years ago (yes 2018 was only three years ago, as crazy as that sounds).
