In one week spring practice will be begin at Clemson. That is right. In one week we will be discussing football, again.

It’s hard to imagine the 2016 football season is about to begin when the 2015 season just ended six weeks ago. But that is the case. The Tigers’ quest to get back to the National Championship Game begins on the last day of February.

“We proved a lot. We did a lot. We did a lot for the program and Clemson University. But we didn’t finish the main goal and that was to win it all,” Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson said in an article on Cowboys HQ last week. “We had a good resume. We were a 15-0 team, but we came up short. So, we still have a lot to prove, a lot to get better at. And we have to pay attention to details and the goal is still excellence.”

Watson and the Clemson offense will return eight starters from a unit that averaged 514.5 yards and 38.5 points per game in 2015. So this spring will be about perfecting what is already a very good offensive football team.

On the defensive side of the ball, for a second-year in a row, Clemson has to replace a lot of starters – seven to be exact. But the Tigers are not rebuilding, they are reloading. If there is one thing we have all learned from Brent Venables the last couple of years, he knows how to build a defense and he knows how to get the best out of his players.

Granted, the road to get back to National Championship Game will have its bumps. Playing Auburn on the Plains will be a tough season-opener. Though Clemson will be the favorite coming into the game, it’s not an easy task to go there and win.

Playing Georgia Tech in Atlanta will be more difficult than people probably think. Should Clemson win there? Absolutely, but until they do you can’t just chalk it up as an automatic win. The Tigers last won there when a guy named Charlie Whitehurst was the quarterback and he threw one of his touchdown passes to a guy named Tony Elliott in the 39-3 victory. That was also the first year at Clemson for a young wide receivers coach by the name of Dabo Swinney.

The biggest obstacle on the road to being “legendary” will come in Tallahassee, Fla., where the Tigers have won just once since 1989. Florida State returns 17 starters from last year’s team, including all 11 on offense.

The winner of the Clemson-FSU game has went onto win the ACC Atlantic Division every year since 2009 and has won the ACC Championship every year since 2010. There is little reason to believe that is going to change this coming season.

If the Tigers can get over these three hurdles then they just have to get over a couple of little bumps like South Carolina and the Coastal Division Champion in the ACC Championship Game, which should not be an issue, after that.

But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, the talk of getting back to the College Football Playoff and the National Championship Game begins one week from today as we get a little sneak peak at what the Tigers will look like in 2016.

If you haven’t already order your copy today of Guts & Glory – Tales of Clemson’s Historic 2015 Football Season to help you celebrate and remember this special season.