By Jim Johnson
SouthernPigskin.com

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Reality or not, nothing short of the greatest single season in the history of the game will satisfy the perception that Watson improved upon his 2015 campaign.

Deshaun Watson is a regression candidate in 2016.

He was a revelation last season. A 156.25 passer rating with over 1,100 rushing yards and 47 total touchdowns is preposterously, borderline alarmingly Cam-esque.

Cam Newton had the best single season in college football history. Watson equitably deserves to be in the silver medal conversation.

It may not even be fair to fault him for x9ctaking a step backx9d this season.

This is not to say that he will play poorly in 2016, far from it. Clemson is an early title favorite for a few reasons, his ability being the preeminent of those.

The thing is, even if he matches his 2015 production, an unreasonable, absurd, and impractical prerequisite for what should be considered success, the overarching perception will be largely unfavorable, relative to the expectations.

Its human nature to take to exciting, new, unique things, at the expense of what we used to consider the standard bearer.

Subconsciously, the college football watching nation is itching to hitch their collective wagon to some hot, young newcomer — Lamar Jackson and Josh Rosen, two premium examples.

This is not a shot-in-the-dark, rather a consistent phenomenon with a historical precedence, the most recent of which is Johnny Manziels post-Heisman season.

Johnny Football took the game by storm as a redshirt freshman, in 2012, the year he took home college footballs most prestigious individual award. The next season, he threw for 400 more yards, eleven more touchdowns, and improved his passer rating 17 points. He finished fifth overall in the voting, with just 30 ballots placing him first. For a point of reference, Jameis Winston ran away with the award, garnering 668 first place votes. Manziel threw for more yards and scored more touchdowns than Winston, even playing in one fewer contest that year.

In fact, thus far in the 21st century, 11 quarterbacks earned the distinction of Heisman finalist and returned for another season, like Watson. Four of them were not invited back to New York the following season, none of them ever improved upon where they finished in the previous years voting, and just one ended up finishing in the same spot as the year prior.

Even guys that showed improvement from their Heisman finalist season to the next season, like Ken Dorsey, Matt Leinart, Andrew Luck, and Manziel, performed worse in the polls. At least those guys were invited back, though. Rex Grossman, Chase Daniel, Kellen Moore, and Jameis Winston, who either plateaued or slipped backwards, had their invitations lost in the mail.

Reality or not, nothing short of the greatest single season in the history of the game will satisfy the perception that Watson improved upon his 2015 campaign.

It doesnt matter if he keeps deadshotting footballs to his incredible receiving corps for another 4,000+ yards. It doesnt matter if he keeps Ms. Pacman-ing befuddled defenders, backpedaling out of the left side of the pocket only to reappear on the right sideline, inexplicably, and rush for another 1,000+ yards.

Even if Deshaun Watson is better than he was in 2015, he cant be better than he was in 2015; not in the eyes of the people, at least.