Why isn’t Trevor Lawrence playing today?

The man who might be the best player in college football will be on the sidelines today for the Clemson Tigers against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, but Trevor Lawrence won’t be able to suit up and play in the biggest ACC game of the 2020 season.

Lawrence was diagnosed with Covid-19 last week, and missed Clemson’s matchup with Boston College on Halloween. But he has completed the 10-day isolation period required of players that test positive by the ACC. What he hasn’t finished is the series of cardiovascular tests designed to identify symptoms of myocarditis, a heart condition often identified with people that have been exposed to Covid-19.

The inability to get the testing done and receive results is why Clemson won’t have a player with a 35-1 career record as a starter in the biggest game of their season. And it’s unfortunate timing not only for the player but college football fans everywhere, as if his condition had been diagnosed just a couple days earlier he might have been able to take the field.

Instead Clemson will start D.J. Uiagalelei, a five-star prospect out of football factory St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, California. Uiagalelei was 30-41 for 342 yards and two touchdowns last week for the Tigers against Boston College, and ran for another score as well.