Editor’s Note: Clemson defensive end Xavier Thomas signed a Name, Image and Likeness deal with The Clemson Insider and Dear Old Clemson to do a series of shows from the TCI studio to discuss his final camp with the Tigers.

It is clear what No. 9 Clemson’s goal is coming into the 2023 football season.

The Tigers, who open the year at Duke next Monday night, want to win a national championship. They have been blunt about it in the preseason, as it seems almost every player has come out and said it when talking to the media.

Even head coach Dabo Swinney was caught on video telling the seniors who signed with Clemson back in 2019, “You are on the clock.” Every signing class from 2013-’18 won a national championship at Clemson.

“Obviously, we have not been back to the national championship since 2019, but that is what we come to Clemson to do. We come here to win national championships,” defensive end Xavier Thomas said in an exclusive interview with TCI. “Obviously, we take it week by week and game by game, win the conference and things like that, but the ultimate goal, and why we came to Clemson, is to win a national championship.”

Only Alabama has won more national championships than Clemson in the College Football Playoff era, and only Alabama has played for the title more and been the CFP more. The Crimson Tide has been to the CFP seven times, played for the national title five times and won it three times.

Clemson has been to the CFP six times, played for the national championship four times and won it twice.

However, after a record of six straight CFP appearances, the Tigers have missed the playoffs the last two years. And though producing a 10-3 season in 2021 and an 11-3 year with an ACC Championship in 2022 is nothing to be ashamed about, they have not lived up to the standard Clemson strives for every year.

“This is not just a regular school where you try to get six wins or 10 wins or something like that,” Thomas said. “We are coming to win the whole thing. That is just our mindset, and we are taking it game by game.”

Thomas, of course, came to Clemson in 2018 and was a part of the Tigers’ 2018 National Championship team.

“It is ultimately the ultimate goal,” he said. “We know that we have every piece to do that, so we know that we have to keep our head down and stay hungry. We can’t get complacent with anything we do.”

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