Sizing up the best
By: hale-mcgranahan January 8, 2016

If best is the standard, Alabama is already there.

Led by Dabo Swinney, Clemson’s coaches and players had no problem admitting what everbody else believes: Alabama is the best program in college football.

“They’re kind of the gold standard in college football,” Jeff Scott said. “We’ve kind of been working our way there. I think it started a few years ago with beating LSU, then the next year beating a guy like Urban Meyer and Ohio State, then the last two years playing Oklahoma and having success versus them.

“Alabama is really the next step. For us to take that next step as a program, we’ve got to beat the best.”

Since 2009, Alabama has played for and won three National Championships.

“It’s a challenge that our guys are excited about. We have a lot of respect for what Alabama and coach (Nick) Saban has done in the past,” Scott said.

This season, Clemson has faced some of country’s top defenses. Four of them finished in the top 20: Boston College (1), Appalachian State (11), Louisville (18) and Florida State (19).

“We’ve played a lot of talented defense. I think this, by far, will be the best defense that we face, the biggest challenge that we’ll have,” Scott said. “As you watch video, as coaches, we always try to find weaknesses, find some areas that, maybe, we could exploit.

“We found out really quick, after going through a few of those games, there’s not a lot of weaknesses there.”

For Clemson, there aren’t a lot of weaknesses on the offensive side of the ball. Nationally, the Tigers finished 11th in total offense (512 yards/game).

“Really, what it comes down to, it’s what we’ve been preaching to our guys all year: It’s about us. It’s about our execution,” Scott said. “Obviously, you’ve got to know your opponent and what they’re going to do scheme-wise and personnel-wise. But, at the end of the day, it really comes down to our execution.”

He added, “If we execute and protect the ball, well have a chance to have success, regardless of who we play. But, if we don’t, we’re not going to put ourselves in position to have a chance, if we don’t execute.”