Phoenix, Ariz. — Clemson’s road back to the College Football Playoff this season was long and bumpy, and the journey was challenging.

The Tigers regularly found themselves in close games, needing a critical defensive stand in the final moments or a clutch fourth-quarter drive to edge out a nail-biting win on numerous occasions. But they found a way to win all but one of those games, and as a result, they are in position to win it all again.

“We’ve been through the fire,” Clemson linebacker Ben Boulware said on Tuesday. “We’ve experienced a lot of things.”

Clemson certainly would have rather romped over every opponent en route to another undefeated season instead of surviving six games by seven points or less like it did.

However, looking back on it, Boulware believes that adversity is beneficial to the team as it gets set to play Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Eve.

“We realize how fragile of a season it is and how huge of an opportunity we have,” Boulware said. “So, we really just have a great respect for football, for college football, for our opponents. We know we can be beat any day.”

Clemson tries to treat each game with the utmost respect and not take any opponent lightly. And in Boulware’s mind, Clemson’s experiences this season have reinforced and re-emphasized the importance of that mindset.

“We’re so aware and we respect how fragile our season is,” Boulware said. “Hopefully two more games left, but if we don’t take care of this one, our season’s over and it’s the last one we play. So, I just respect that and have that much more of an appreciation for all the things that go into it.”

The margin for error was slim during the regular season, and it will be even slimmer in the College Football Playoff.

Clemson knows as well as any team in the country that there’s a fine line between winning and losing. And if the Tigers end up in another close game in the College Football Playoff semifinal, it won’t be something they’re not used to.

“Losing to Pittsburgh, playing against Auburn at Auburn, beating Louisville, beating Florida State at Florida State, beating Georgia Tech for the first time in 13 years at Georgia Tech — we’ve experienced a lot of things,” Boulware said. “So, I think the experience we’ve faced over the season has got us that much more acclimated to this environment, to the talent that we’re going to face.

“I think it will just help us out that much more.”