Linebacker Chad Smith says Clemson’s matchup versus Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl this Saturday will be a challenge for the third-ranked Tigers, but for veterans like Smith, this is just another trip to the post-season and a chance to vie for another national championship in January.

While many teams could become complacent in the winning, Smith says the Tigers every game, especially with a team like Ohio State on deck, the same because you never know when a team could swoop in and end it all.

“We, at least here at Clemson, we don’t treat any of them differently,” Smith said. “I mean each game is a playoff game for us. If we had lost in week four, the odds of us making the playoffs would have been dramatically lower, so we treat each and every game like a playoff game with a playoff mentality. It’s just now we have a lot more attention being in the college football playoff with the media and the hype, that’s kind of what changes it a bit, but for us, our mentality does not change.”

With only a few games left in the Clemson uniform, the senior is hoping to carry that mentality on to another national championship to make a few last college football memories with the Tigers. Smith says that while all the victories have been sweet along the way, that first national championship has by far been the sweetest.

“That’s tough. They’re all great, to be honest with you, but I think that first national championship win. I don’t think you can surpass a feeling like that knowing that the year before we were so close and to be able to come back and get back to that moment and be able to pull it out the way we did, in that fashion with the pass with one second and the pass from Deshaun [Watson] to [Hunter] Renfrow, that whole moment, It’s hard to explain that feeling.”