Clemson Tigers

The Panel: Perseverance has long defined Shaq Lawson

Published Apr. 1, 2016 8:49 a.m. ET

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The moment Jake Coker started dancing, Shaq Lawson was on him. He watched the Alabama quarterback fake the handoff to Derrick Henry, drop back and look downfield, but the Clemson defensive end had other plans, bringing him down for one of his two sacks in the national championship game.

But here's the thing: Lawson at 50 percent. He was nursing a knee injury suffered in the College Football Playoff semifinal against Oklahoma.

"It hurt bad," Lawson said before his taping of FOX Sports South's The Panel, which airs Sunday, April 3 at 9 p.m. ET. "I felt good going out there just to help my team try to win the game and leave it all out there for my last game."

It was a show of perseverance, a trait that Lawson is hoping NFL teams paid attention to and one that has defined him outside the confines of the game as well.

Near the end of his senior year at Central, S.C.'s D.W. Daniel High School -- located just over 5 miles from Clemson's Memorial Stadium -- Lawson's father Lawrence was killed in a car accident. He had planned on going to Tennessee, but instead opted to stay close to his family and play for the Tigers. But there was a hiccup in those plans as he wasn't immediately academically eligible and had to spend a year at Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia.

"I know God does everything for a reason, so I was just waiting my turn and just waiting for my opportunity to get (to Clemson) ... and the loss of my dad just changed the way I act as a person," Lawson said. "Going to military school just made me better as a man and had me ready for Clemson had for me."

The 6-foot-3, 270-pounder appeared on All-American teams as a freshman in 2013 when he had 10 tackles for loss in a reserve role, and followed that with 3 1/2 QB stops and 11 tackles for loss as a sophomore. The departure of first-round pick Vic Beasley set the stage for his junior season as Lawson was named preseason All-ACC with just one start under his belt.

As the leader of an entirely new defensive front seven, Lawson helped the Tigers to the nation's only undefeated regular season and earned ACC Defensive Player of the Year honors with 9 1/2 sacks and 22 tackles for loss -- an FBS-best -- in the regular season.

"I was waiting for my time when Vic left, just waiting and grinding for it since I got to Clemson," Lawson said. "I knew I had to take advantage of it when my time was there my junior year. There was some goals I wanted to set: become an All-American, lead my team to a national championship. That's what I was thinking in my head every day when I got up and got to working."

He and the Tigers nearly hit those goals. Lawson finished with 12 1/2 sacks and 122 tackles, with 25 1/2 for loss, and was a consensus All-American. But Clemson fell 45-40 to the Crimson Tide, denying the program its first national title since 1981.

Still, Lawson was part of an era in which Clemson beat Ohio State in the Orange Bowl his freshman year, dumped Oklahoma in back-to-back postseasons and played for a championship. It was a major departure from when he was being pursued by Dabo Swinney in 2012.

"I didn't see that coming," Lawson said. "I remember getting recruited and West Virginia had put up 70 points on those guys. ... It was time for a change at Clemson, we abided by that and changed the culture at Clemson. ... It just got better each year for us and it paid off for us this year making it to the national championship game."

Now he's on the cusp of a childhood dream coming to fruition. Peter Schrager's latest FOXSports.com mock draft has Lawson going with the No. 14 pick to the Raiders. Teams have discussed his playing at outside linebacker in a 3-4 defensive scheme or as an end in a 4-3 set. Lawson doesn't have a preference, noting most of his damage in Brent Venables defense at Clemson came from him in standup role on the outside.

"I'm comfortable with anything," he said. "I had my 12 1/2 sacks standing up, so I've done a lot of dropping, standing up, guarding great backs since I've been in my career at Clemson."

Follow Cory McCartney on Twitter @coryjmccartney and Facebook. His book, 'Tales from the Atlanta Braves Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Braves Stories Ever Told,' comes out April 12, 2016., and 'The Heisman Trophy: The Story of an American Icon and Its Winners' will be released Nov. 1, 2016.

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