Clemson Begins Hunt For Another CFP Appearance
Clemson begins spring practice Wednesday, and unlike last year, they will open the spring session coming off a loss.
The Tigers 42-25 loss to LSU in the national title game was the team's first in 29 games, a streak dating back to the end of the 2017 season when they fell 24-6 to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.
For members of the Clemson football team, they are entering the spring in unchartered territory.
A year ago, this team was starting the spring fresh off the 44-16 thrashing of Alabama in the 2018 national title game.
They came into last spring as the kings of college football, knowing the bull's-eye was firmly entrenched on their backs.
In other words, they were the hunted.
This year will be different.
This spring will be the first step in erasing the sour taste of the LSU loss out of their mouths.
This year they begin the spring on a hunt to finish what was started last season.
Clemson has now made five consecutive College Football Playoff appearances, the longest streak in the nation currently. They may not have ended last season with a ring, but they are still considered by many as the alpha dog of the sport at the moment. It is for that reason Clemson is the favorite to bring home another title in 2020.
Before that can happen however, the Tigers must put in the work, and that starts in the spring.
To have the opportunity to play for a title, much less win one, is no easy task, something Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney continuously reminds his team of.
“If we can continually be a team that has a shot then we will have those years where we will finish it,” Swinney said after the LSU loss. “It just takes so much to get there so our guys have done a great job.”
When a program has experienced the kind of success that Clemson has the last five years, each week they go into a game knowing their opponent has had their name circled on the calendar.
They get every opponent's best shot.
While Swinney will never admit that winning a national title is the goal, for those associated with the program there is an understanding of the expectations.
If the Tigers are going to live up to the expectations, both externally and internally, there can be no off weeks. The margin for error is razor thin.
With that in mind, the Tigers will enter the spring, and then the season in a precarious spot: not only will they be the hunters, but they will also be the hunted.
