Final Thoughts: Confident Tigers start the chase for the other 15

Clemson's Tiger statues stand guard over TigerWalk (Photo by Merrell Mann).

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Mon Sep 04 12:30:13 GMT-04:00 2023

Under the lights on Labor Day night is the perfect time to play game one of the other 15.

It’s been 248 long days since the Tigers walked off the field after losing the Orange Bowl to Tennessee, and now 350 days is the mantra for a team looking to rebuild national respect and perception.

Running back Will Shipley wore a shirt into interviews the other that had "CL3M50N" written on it. The 350 were in orange, while the rest of the letters were in white. What does that shirt mean? It’s a nod to the fact that the players are guaranteed at least 350 days of work in the hope that they will get to play 15 games this season. Playing 15 games would mean a trip to the College Football Playoff and the National Championship.

Shipley explained further.

“I think Coach Swinney has been saying it for around two years now. This game is so special because you spend so much time working for something that may not even be there at the end of your journey,” he said. “To be guaranteed to only play 12 games, you’re lucky if you get those other three. But you’re guaranteed those 350 days to work your butt off to earn those other 15 days. There’s no guarantees, but if you push yourself right and differentiate yourself from your competitors, then those 15 usually go pretty well and I think we’ve done a great job of that.”

It all starts tonight when No. 9 Clemson travels to Durham to take on Duke. We all have plenty of questions about this team, and while all of those questions won’t get answered tonight, we will have a better idea about this team when the clock strikes midnight.

After the team arrived in Durham on Sunday, I texted someone on the ground there and asked about the team's mood. I received a one-word answer. “Confident.”

We’ve seen that out of the players and coaches all through the spring and fall camp, and head coach Dabo Swinney has always said that the best teams are player-led, not coach-led. In the past few years, we’ve seen the coaches do much of the leading while younger players like Shipley find their voice.

Now, it’s back to being player-led, shown in how the team worked in fall camp.

“I mean honestly, I think we had one bad day out of the whole camp. I think we had one day where I just didn’t feel like it was what it needed to be, where it had to be kind of coach-led,” Swinney said. “And I’m happy to do that if I need to, but some teams you have to do that more than others, and that’s just part of it. That’s part of coaching is kind of figuring out what you’ve got to do to get this team to where they need to be. But these guys showed up every day. And they had a great spirit to them, they had a great focus every day, and it was a very competitive camp.

“And I thought they had a lot of fun. I didn’t really see anybody hit the wall. There were some young guys and stuff, but those older guys (helped). But these guys really showed up every day and battled. And it’s just a close group. I like where we are. I mean you’ve got to go play the game, but I think coming out of camp, the thing I’m most proud of is, I see a team. And camp is where that has to really jell. And I think this team’s got good chemistry, and if they’ll go play like they’ve practiced, we’ve got a chance to be a good football team."

The truth is, we don’t really know we’re going to see. We think the offense will be better, we think the offensive line is better, we think the receivers are healthy and better, but we’ve only seen snippets of practice and very few live situations where they’ve gone head-to-head. We have to rely on what the coaches tell us, what the players tell us, and what those who watch practice tell us. Then we have to tie it all together.

But that all ends tonight when the journey for 15 games begins.