In the last four years Clemson has won an ACC Championship, an Orange Bowl, beat five prominent programs in college football, won 42 games and recorded four straight 10-win seasons.

So what’s the next logical step for the program to take? Being selected for the College Football Playoffs? Win the program a second National Championship?

“The next step for us,” head coach Dabo Swinney asked.

“We have to get back to winning this conference … We have to win this conference. That’s the thing. We have won the division, we have tied for the division, we have finished second in the division and we won the conference. But we have to consistently stay right there.

“We have kind of done that, but we have to get back to winning this league if we are to truly have a legitimate shot at being in the College Football Playoff, and that’s ultimately what we are trying to do.”

The Tigers last won the ACC in 2011, when Tajh Boyd, Dwayne Allen and Sammy Watkins led them to a 38-10 victory over No. 5 Virginia Tech in the ACC Championship Game. The last three seasons Florida State has owned the conference, and Clemson, beating the Tigers in all three meetings. The Seminoles also won the National Championship in 2013 and participated in the first College Football Playoffs last year.

But Florida State has a new quarterback, though experienced in Everett Golson, four new starters on the offensive line, its running back has been suspended and its defense has a crop of brand new players. So the so-called experts believe this year is the year for the Tigers to take the next step and bring the ACC Championship back to Clemson.

The media that cover the ACC overwhelmingly picked the Tigers as the preseason favorite to win the conference at last week’s ACC Football Kickoff.

“The last couple of years, or at least the last five years, Clemson has had such high expectations placed on it, but Coach Swinney has done such a great job keeping us level headed, saying preseason polls and preseason rankings are just preseason rankings,” left guard Eric Mac Lain said. “Nothing really matters until December, but I think it is time for Clemson to take that next step.”

So how do the Tigers take the next step? How do they get over the hump? Beating Florida State will help, but that isn’t the only thing.

Perhaps having a healthy Deshaun Watson could alleviate some of that or having a young defense grow up faster than what some might think? Maybe new offensive coordinators Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott will get things rolling and will not miss a beat with Chad Morris now running the show at SMU?

“I think the stars are aligning, if you will, with the athletes if we have coming back and the changing of the coordinators. Wherever they will take us, we are ready to take that step,” Mac Lain said.

Mac Lain also explains the cohesiveness of the team can also help the Tigers get back on top.

“This has been more of tightknit unit than what we have had so far,” he said. “I have been here for five years and I have seen a lot of teams, but there is just something a little bit different about this one, and I hope we will be able to show you guys this fall.”

Swinney says the Tigers have been knocking at the door of being something special the last several years, “but no one is answering,” he said. “We have to stop knocking, and eventually we have to kick the door in. We have to go take it. No one is just going to hand it to us.”

So expectations at Clemson are high as ever as the 2015 football season approaches, and Swinney does not want it any other way.

“It does not matter what is on the roster, people at Clemson, they expect to win. We just have to continue to do that,” he said.