2016: Tigers Saw and Conquered

There are few players from both the No. 3 Clemson Tigers and the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes that were around three years ago when the two teams met in the 2016 College Football Playoff semifinal at the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl.

Thinking back on that game, which the Tigers won 31-0, senior offensive lineman Tremayne Anchrum believes that the balance of fun and focus helped lead the Tigers, not only to the win in the semifinal, but also to their second national title in school history.

"What I remember most, I was a young man, so I was kind of nervous," Anchrum said. "Didn't really know what to expect. I was just kind of thrown into it. So I remember the atmosphere was very businesslike. But we also knew how to have fun, and he kept us engaged throughout the whole bowl prep. It was a little different."

Fellow senior, K'Von Wallace recalled his first CFP game. It was not a bowl trip to have fun, instead it was a trip that was all about taking care of business.

"I was a true freshman coming in, having to play my role," Wallace said. "I was a third-down guy, so making sure I got everything I need to get done to play well for my team. It was a very locked-in, focused team, didn't lose any focus. It wasn't a trip to go have fun. It was not a trip to have a vacation. It was locked in. We knew what we wanted to do. And we came and we saw and we conquered."

The difference for the Tigers this year is a week less to prepare. But with a week less to get ready for an Ohio State team that is hoping to pick up their first win against the Tigers in school history and punch a ticket to the national championship, the Tigers will lean on the lessons learned from the 2016 team to hopefully lead them to another win in the desert.

"We had more time. I remember the level of competition being high, not only in the game, but what prepared us the most was the level of competition in the practice, and how we did sharpen iron-on-iron," Anchrum said. "And that kind of edge that those older guys brought that taught us, that we can carry on to the younger generations that, Hey, it's always game time. We don't just get up for games like this. We treat games like this like we do Week 6, Week 7. The preparation may be different, but we keep the formula for excellence. Keeping that same formula through now similar to how we were last time."

While the Tigers can look back on the 2016 and draw confidence from their dominant performance, the Buckeyes are looking to put that game in the past and move forward.

"I mean, all I can really say is we are prepared," Davon Hamilton said. "We have the week to prepare. There's nothing really to say about the last three years. We're talking about the present now, and that's all we're looking forward to."