Reliving the moment

When quarterbacks coach Brandon Streeter finally sat down and watched the film, one thing stood out above all else.

CLEMSON— Sometimes when you are in the midst of a special moment it takes time to fully appreciate how special it is.

The same holds true for the Clemson coaches. For some of the coaches it took weeks before they had an opportunity to sit down and fully process how special their 44-16 win was against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the College Football Playoff National Championship to end last season.

But when quarterbacks coach Brandon Streeter finally sat down and watched the film, one thing stood out above all else — the explosiveness of the offense.

"It really was a couple of weeks after the game that I finally got to sit down and watch the whole version, especially the TV copy. It was really neat," Streeter said. "It was neat to just think about all the plays that were called and think about the explosiveness that we had against Alabama and young guys making big plays."

The Tigers offensive explosion in last year's championship game has been the talk of most of the national media ahead of the 2019 season.

However, it was not any of the throws that were made by then-true freshman Trevor Lawrence or the circus-catches of his fellow freshman Justyn Ross that had Streeter smiling. 

Instead it was the Tigers final drive of the game — a 14-play, 92-yard drive that used up the final 10:02 minutes — that had Streeter smiling as he watched the video.

"Everybody talks about the one play that Trevor threw to Justyn on a corner route," Streeter said. "The one arm catch. What an incredible, incredible catch that was for Justyn. But, just to watch those guys compliment each other, whether it be in the run game or the passing game, which is so impressive.

"Then for me, the neatest thing was to watch the last drive of the game," he added. "I mean just being able to take 10 minutes off the clock. Longest drive. We all know (that was the) longest drive in Clemson history and to do it against the defense like that — it was just an awesome, awesome feeling."

"I think every one of those plays was a run play," he said. "It just shows our guys finishing. Then finishing down there on the whatever, 6 or 5-yard line and running the clock out. So, that was a really, really cool drive to watch. To see the excitement on the sidelines from the coaches and from the players."