{"id":12864,"date":"2016-01-11T09:01:27","date_gmt":"2016-01-11T17:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/how-clemson-built-an-undefeated-mindset\/"},"modified":"2016-01-11T09:01:27","modified_gmt":"2016-01-11T17:01:27","slug":"how-clemson-built-an-undefeated-mindset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/how-clemson-built-an-undefeated-mindset\/","title":{"rendered":"How Clemson built an undefeated mindset"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEMSON, S.C. \u2014<\/strong> Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson had nearly wrapped up a summertime appearance when someone asked if the Tigers could win a national championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo doubt about it,\u201d Watson said with a grin. \u201c15-0.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifteen? Are there even that many games?<\/p>\n

In the College Football Playoff era, the Tigers are trying to break new ground. Watson and the top-ranked Tigers are trying to make history as the first undefeated team with 15 wins against No. 2 Alabama on Monday night, hoping to finish off a goal set down as the ultimate target long ago.<\/p>\n

Sure, there have been other undefeated teams. Clemson\u2019s last national championship team in 1981 finished with a 12-0 record. Florida State was 14-0 in its national championship year two years ago. With the playoff in the mix, the Tigers could be the first team to reach 15-0.<\/p>\n

The undefeated mindset was set as the team\u2019s theme for the season before the Tigers ever stepped on the field. Swinney put 15 up on the board at an early gathering. He passed out T-shirts with \u201c15 for 15\u201d on the back.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 2015,\u201d Swinney told them. \u201cRight now, we\u2019ve sold every ticket, but there\u2019s only 12. We want to make them print 15 tickets.\u201d<\/p>\n

That part\u2019s done. Now, it\u2019s up to Clemson to finish off its first perfect season since the 1981 national champions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not easy to get everyone to buy into this,\u201d co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott said. \u201cIt took planning and preparation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swinney regularly worked with a sports psychologist, Milt Lowder, who has consulted with Clemson athletes and coaches since 2005. Lowder said he met with Swinney at least once a week during the season, the coach sharing ideas about techniques on keeping the Tigers focused.<\/p>\n

Lowder said none of this season\u2019s success would\u2019ve happened without Clemson\u2019s steady success the past several seasons. The Tigers have won 10 or more games each of the past five years, defeating college powers LSU, Ohio State and Oklahoma \u2014 twice \u2014 in bowl games.<\/p>\n

Older players understood and accepted the work it took to win games. Without that, Lowder said, Swinney\u2019s words would ring hollow.<\/p>\n

So when the season began, the team forgot about the big goal. They looked at the milestone in increments. They didn\u2019t think about 15 anymore. 2-0 became 3-0. Then 4-0, and 5-0. 6-0, then 7-0. The win column kept changing, the loss column never did.<\/p>\n

Swinney puts it simply: \u201cYou can\u2019t be 15-0 unless you\u2019re 3-0.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to have a process on getting there, something that you\u2019re confident works with your team,\u201d said Brent Walker, president of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology. \u201cIt\u2019s easier to do that once your players understand your commitment to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The players, led by Watson, easily followed along. The sophomore had an injury-plagued first year, and was eager to show the high school promise that made him one of the country\u2019s top prospects. He helped the younger Tigers get on board.<\/p>\n

Watson says it was an easy sell. To those holdouts, Watson insisted he came to Clemson to win championships and needed everyone to have that focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about believing in each other,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we do around here.\u201d<\/p>\n

That belief as succeeded for Clemson before. The 1981 national champion was No. 1 and 11-0 into a David-vs.-Goliath showing in the Orange Bowl against powerful and pedigreed Nebraksa. The result? Tigers 22-15.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one except up thought we could win,\u201d said Jeff Davis, a linebacker for that championship group. \u201cThat sounds like now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, on the game\u2019s biggest stage, this year\u2019s group will get the chance to prove it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CLEMSON, S.C. \u2014 Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson had nearly wrapped up a summertime appearance when someone asked if the Tigers could win a national championship. \u201cNo doubt about it,\u201d Watson said with a grin. \u201c15-0.\u201d Fifteen? Are there even that many games? In the College Football Playoff era, the Tigers are trying to break new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":12865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-12864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12864"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=12864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}