A year ago, Clemson fell to Alabama in the final, 45-40, despite a stellar performance from Deshaun Watson who gained 478 total yards of offense. Despite the loss, Watson was trying to write a different script for the 2016-2017 season.

Little did they know this season would be a roller coaster ride from start to finish, playing in tight games with not so great teams. Watson was called out for struggling early (threw 17 INT coming into the National Championship) and a young defense that was struggling. Many believed Clemson was lucky to say that they were apart of the College Football Playoff. But once again Clemson proves us all wrong with another CFP surge.

Dabo Swinney and Clemson couldn’t have one a National Championship any other way. A 5′-11″ walk on wide receiver, Hunter Renfroe scored five touchdowns against one of the best defenses in college football. Renfroe turned down his only FCS offer from Appalachian State, anf decided to forgo this with the chance to play under Dabo.

“The man just proved that anything is possible, he wasn’t even supposed to be playing in this game,” Nick Niehaus said.

They also could not have won this final game unless Deshaun Watson had a “Vince Young” type game.  He delivered by completeing 36-50 passes for 420 yards and three TDs, and rushing for 41 yards and one TD.

Before the college football playoff Watson said he was the best player in the country, and he wasn’t kidding.

“The man lived up to the hype all throughout the playoffs. He also showed he was one of the toughest in the country last night,” Niehaus told me.

He took hard hits from Alabama’s defense all night, at one point in time he went airborne twisting around 360 degrees.  Watson continued to get back up, and continued to deliver.

The man was born to be in the spotlight, and he called that he would go off in the National Championship game in 2012.

When Alabama scored with 2:07 to go, Clemson had all the confidence in the world that they were going to drive down the field and score. Before walking out on the field for the final drive Watson told everyone who was a part of the offense, “Hey, let’s be legendary, let’s go be great.” And they did just that. The Tigers managed to drive down to the Alabama two yard line with six seconds to go.

Before the next play, Swinney came out and told his guys, “boys, if you want to be a champ, you gotta go win it.” They ran their best play, and if it wasn’t there then they would just kick a field goal and tie it up. The tigers called a play to beat Alabama’s cover zero, and it did just that. Watson hit the sophomore Renfroe for the go-ahead touchdown.

Thirty-five years ago, Clemson won its first National Championship over Nebraska when quarterback Homer Jordan threw a touchdown pass to Perry Tuttle to seal the victory in the Orange Bowl. It all came down to one last pass to seal the victory for Clemson once again.

This team battled through adversity the whole season and still came out on top, this team will be remembered for being special.