For nearly 30 minutes after last year’s loss to Alabama in the national championship game, Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson stood by his locker and answered every question from the media.

It was a sign of his maturity in a way. It showed even at his lowest point, on the losing side of a championship game, how he delivered in a way similar to what he does on the football field every Saturday during the fall.

Also, on that day, Watson delivered on one of the statements he gave the media. He said before wrapping up the interviews with most of the national media, “We’ll see you in Tampa next year.”

And here the second-ranked Tigers are as they play the same team that beat them in last year’s title game at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida for the College Football Playoff National Championship next Monday night.

When asked today what gave him the confidence to know Clemson would be back in this position given all that can happen in any given season, Watson responded with, “Just belief.”

It was that belief that carried the Tigers through an 11-1 regular season where they stumbled just once, a last-second loss to Pittsburgh at home, before winning a second straight ACC Championship with a win over Virginia Tech and a second straight playoff game with a thumping of No. 3 Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.

Through it all, despite unwarranted criticism from mostly the national media, Watson had another record-breaking year while guiding Clemson back to the title game. He broke his own single-season record for passing yards with 4,173 yards. He broke Tajh Boyd’s single-season record for touchdown passes with 38. He needs just two touchdowns to break his own record for total touchdowns in a season and he is just 454 total yards from breaking his own ACC record.

Watson also set the ACC record for passing yards in a game with 580 against Pitt, and he tied his own ACC record for touchdown passes in a game when he had six against rival South Carolina to close out the regular season.

Now, he has helped the Tigers get back to the National Championship Game like he said he would a year ago.

“I have high standards for me and my teammates, and this is where we wanted to be,” Watson said on Wednesday. “We weren’t going to sit there and say we’re not going to be in Tampa or in the National Championship. That was one of the things, we wanted to be in the front again and be one of the best teams.

“Just having that belief … that’s it, going into the year and putting in the work.”

Now it comes down to winning it, and bringing a national championship back to Clemson for the first time in 35 years.

Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports