Clemson talked a lot over the offseason about wanting a national title and entered the 2023 season with sights set on winning it all. Unfortunately for the Tigers (4-3, 2-3 ACC), that went off the table early on with a couple of September losses.

One of Clemson’s veteran leaders, fifth-year senior cornerback Sheridan Jones, met with the media this week and spoke about how the team has adjusted and recalibrated its goals since those preseason national championship aspirations became no longer a reality.

This will be the third straight season that the Tigers miss out on the College Football Playoff, and Jones admitted it’s difficult to fall so short of the lofty hopes they had coming into the year of lifting the championship trophy in January.

However, Jones sees the silver lining in the situation as well and believes it’s lessons learned for the team and younger players that will serve them well in the future.

“It’s always tough, having a goal set and then maybe not getting so close to that goal as you can, and just taking an L, period,” said Jones, who has played in 54 career games at Clemson and made 27 starts, including six this season.

“But it’s not just a loss, it’s also lessons for the whole team – the defense, offense, the younger guys coming up for the years to come. And that goes to just the leadership role that we play on this team, the older guys, and we just want to try and leave the best foundation that we can for the younger guys coming up so they don’t make the same mistakes that we made. Because it’s more than just us, it’s more than just my last year, it’s more than just wins and losses – it’s all about the foundation and just being inside out, just being Clemson.”

Right now, though, Jones says the Tigers are focused on staying in the moment and making the best of the rest of the 2023 campaign.

“I would just say that goes to something that Coach Swinney talks to us about all the time – just being in the now, just being great where your feet are and blooming where you’re planted,” Jones said. “With that (national championship) off the table, you can’t really dwell on any of the losses that we took or any of the lessons that we learned, because it’s in the past and you never want to let a loss beat you twice. So, we look at the film, figure out what we’ve got to do better and just get better moving forward. Just trying to go 1-0 each week for the rest of the year and just see what happens at the end.”

The Tigers will attempt to do just that and go 1-0 this weekend when they face NC State at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh. Saturday’s game against the Wolfpack (4-3, 1-2 ACC) will kick off at 2 p.m. and be televised on The CW Network.

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