By Hale McGranahan.

Cole Stoudt doesn’t really care what anyone outside the West End Zone complex thinks about the Clemson quarterback situation.

The senior starter isn’t bothered by the idea of a freshman cutting into his playing time. He also doesn’t seem to be phased by the notion that Deshaun Watson is more effective and better suited to run the Tigers’ hurry-up, no-huddle offense.

“It’s not frustrating, because I know what the coaches are feeling,” Stoudt said. “I know what the players are feeling. I know my situation. I know that I won the job. I don’t focus on what other people have to say, because they don’t know what’s going on in the meeting rooms and out at practice.

“It’s just something I really don’t focus on.”

Instead, Stoudt is more concerned about the task at hand: Saturday night’s primetime tilt at Florida State.

“You’ve got to go in there with the right attitude,” he said. “It’s a big game. You’ve got to go in there with the right attitude and just kind of know that there is going to be adversity at some point in the game. You’ve got to be able to move past that and just keep going on to the next play, be the best that you can be.”

Through two games this season, Stoudt has completed 38 of 60 passes (63 percent) for 446 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

Saturday’s appearance in Doak Campbell won’t be the first time he’s played against Florida State. Last season, Stoudt connected on 5 of 8 throws for 47 yards. He also rushed twice for seven yards and a score during mop-up duty in the Death Valley dismantling.

“At the time, I was excited. But I was mad, because we were losing the game,” Stoudt said. “That was last year. This is a new year. Kind of have different mentality going in there.”

Fortunately, for Stoudt and the rest of his Clemson teammates, they’ve already been in one hostile environment this season: Last month’s foray into Sanford Stadium.

“It helped us a lot. Going in there, a hostile environment like that, having it loud, playing in front of all those people; knowing that it’s probably going to be the same situation going in there for how loud it’s going to be, we’ll know how it’s going to be,” Stoudt said. “It’s all mental focus that we’ve got to get prepared for.”

He certainly looks forward to the challenge.

“Not many people have this opportunity,” Stoudt said. “We’re going to go in there and make the most of it. We’ll see where it all goes from there.”