Win each day: Boulware says right input helped beat Bama, will help his group in goals

Boulware was ready for all Alabama had to offer.

David Hood · Senior Writer · Monday, May 19 2025

Worrying about the input helped Ben Boulware and Clemson beat Alabama for the national title back in the 2016 season, and Boulware wants to pass those lessons along to his current group of linebackers.

Boulware played linebacker for the Tigers and was a key cog in Clemson’s national championship season. Prior to the game against the Crimson Tide in Tampa, Boulware watched film, watched more film, and even more film. Past conversations revealed that he filled notebooks with what Alabama did on offense.

That work showed up in the game, and one play stands out, one that was all about the input with little output from Boulware himself.

Alabama led 14-7, was driving into Clemson territory, and prepared to snap the ball with just 5:09 left before the half. The Crimson Tide had the ball at the Clemson 40, and when quarterback Jalen Hurts stepped to the line, he motioned the tight end to the left side (or weak side).

Boulware immediately recognized the play and began waving his teammates to that side of the line, knowing exactly where the play was going. Through film study, Boulware knew that on 3rd-and-5 or 3rd-and-6, when the Tide moved into the end over formation, they would run the QB option to that side. Hurts took the snap and followed the running back into the hole, but Boulware drove the tight end into the backfield, and the hole closed quickly. Linebacker Kendall Joseph closed in on Hurts and dropped him for a four-yard loss that forced the Tide to punt the ball away.

Boulware, who wound up with six total tackles (and two tackles for loss) in the game, now coaches the linebackers for the Tigers and took a moment to remember what led to that special and the 35-31 victory that brought Clemson its second national title.

“Well, that specifically is just the input. The output took care of itself, but I didn't even get a stat on that,” Boulware said on the Two Right Turns podcast recently. “And that's the culmination of all of those things I spoke about earlier about, hey, making sure we're putting the right things in our body, making sure we're getting enough sleep, making sure we're watching enough tape. And one of the lenses that I looked through - I remember to this day of that week, I was trying to think of, ‘Hey, what are some input things that I can do going into this Natty week?’

“So, we had player-led meetings the entire week. You'd have breakfast at 8:00 AM, and I sent a text out to our entire defense, ‘Hey, we're going to meet at seven. There'll be no coaches. There'll be me, Christian (Wilkins), and we are going to lead it. You don't have to be there, but if you're not going to be there, you're not going to play. And pretty much throughout that entire week, the entire defense was there. And that was one of the things I was like, this doesn't take any talent for us to organize this. I know this is something that Alabama is not doing.”

Boulware now is making sure his group understands all of the input it takes to be special. If they want a banner of their own, they can’t concentrate on the banner itself, they have to worry about winning each day.

“So, I was doing it in 2016, and that's one of the things that I'm trying to teach these guys now, which we spoke about at length this morning at mat drills,” he said. "If you want to get one of those banners up in this facility, don't worry about the banner. The banner is output. Worry about the input, winning the day, winning this mat drill, winning the rep, and then tomorrow do the exact same thing. For me, I've tried to always have that perspective and look at life through that lens, not worrying about titles or output production goals, I'm just taking it one day at a time and trying to win each day.”

Was looking through my game plan notes from the National Championship and found these. Watch the video above. Preparation = Separation pic.twitter.com/3WXVS7kxnj
— Ben Boulware (@benboulware7) January 27, 2017