"He is the ultimate preparer" — When Dabo Swinney couldn't stop raving about Deshaun Watson's achievements at Clemson

Deshaun Watson's career in the NFL has not been the best and has mostly been plagued with scandals about the player's actions away from the field. However, during college, Watson was one of the better quarterbacks in the country.

He went to college at Clemson and played under coach Dabo Swinney. Watson entered the NFL as the No. 12 pick of the 2017 NFL draft by the Houston Texans, and Swinney praised Watson for his work effort while with the Tigers.

"I mean, he's just special, and he's a preparer," Swinney said. "That guy, he is the ultimate preparer. He's a gym rat. He does not get the credit. That was the thing I tried to tell everybody when he was coming out: You have no idea how focused this young person is." [Timestamp — 1:08]

During his three seasons with Clemson, Watson led the team to two consecutive ACC championships, College Football Playoff appearances and back-to-back national championship games in 2015 and 2016.

During the 2015 national championship game, he threw for over 400 yards in a game that the Tigers lost against the Alabama Crimson Tide 45-40.

However, Watson made the team national champions in 2016, and Clemson got its revenge on Alabama in the rematch. Watson threw for more than 400 yards again in that game.

In all, Watson threw for 10,163 yards and scored 90 touchdowns in a period of time when Clemson only lost two games

Dabo Swinney talks about how Deshaun Watson made him a better coach.

In the same interview, Coach Swinney spoke about how playing with a player like Watson made him a better coach.

"Deshaun may have made me a better coach, certainly makes me a better coach when he's on the field. But he made me a better coach by watching him prepare how detailed he was and also watching his poise you know, just incredibly poise, regardless of the situation. He threw a pick six and threw a touchdown...I think we can learn from being around people like that you talk about toughness and competitiveness."

Working with a player like Watson helped Swinney develop as a coach. The impact of this development was seen a few years later, when Swinney and the Tigers had another strong quarterback on their roster in the form of Trevor Lawrence.

While his NFL career started strongly — he took the Texans to back-to-back playoff appearances — Watson is now with the Cleveland Browns and struggles to play like he did in his college days and early NFL career.