Dabo Swinney isn't taking anything for granted.
The Clemson coach knows how hard it is to get to the national championship game. Before the Tigers' run to the championship tilt last season, Clemson last played for a national championship in 1981.
"It's just really hard to do. I mean, heck, it's been 35 years since _ or 34 years since Clemson got back, and now we've been able to get back in back to back years, which is just incredible," Swinney said. "It's really, really hard to do.
"There are very few programs as you just said that can maintain that type of consistency. It's just very, very hard to win at a very high level consistently."
No team outside of fellow national title game contender Alabama has been more consistent than Clemson during the past six years, with the Tigers winning 68 games during that stretch _ one more than Ohio State and Florida State.
Swinney said several factors played a role in Clemson's sustained success, including health of the players, parity in college football and the improving level of athletes being recruited today.
The No. 2 Tigers have figured out how to force a rematch with No. 1 Alabama for the national championship Monday at Tampa's Raymond James Stadium.
While Swinney said nerves associated with playing on the national stage are a good thing he embraces, he acknowledged the experience narrowly losing to Alabama in last year's championship should help his current team handle the pressure this year.
"They know they belong, they know they're good enough and just maybe the emphasis on how thin the margin for error is when you get in some of these games," he said. "You know, some games you can maybe make a few more mistakes than others and maybe you're that much better than that team and you overcome that, but in games like this ... you just don't have a lot of room for error. And I think our guys have a great appreciation for that."
Swinney said beyond experience, this year's team, which won 13 games, back-to-back ACC titles and defeated Ohio State 31-0 in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl, is different from last year's squad.
"I just felt like we had more juice than we did last year," he said. "Last year we were _ two factors: We played 10 straight, which is a huge challenge, but we were also, as I've said many times, top-heavy, especially defensively. We were kind of one deep when it comes to guys that were really ready to play championship football. Just not a lot of depth and experience competitively, and that took a toll on us."
