Clemson’s second football national championship wasn’t just a one-year accomplishment.
It had been building for years.
And not just last year when the Tigers came so close against Alabama but fell just short, motivating this year’s players who endured that loss to get back to the national title game and get over the hump.
No, this championship run really began when Dabo Swinney took over the program on an interim level and immediately began to change the program’s culture. Known for big-picture talk but not enough attention paid to the details under Tommy Bowden, Swinney’s program has been known for focusing on those details and the little things and letting that focus determine the outcome.