It took about an hour, give or take, for the underclassmen gathered in Clemson’s locker room below University of Phoenix Stadium to turn toward the 2016 season.
A few had announcements to make. Clemson tight end Jordan Leggett would return for his senior year, he said. Then-sophomore running back Wayne Gallman was noncommittal, though he took to his Twitter account one day later to broadcast his decision to return to Clemson’s star-powered offensive attack.
Clemson Coach Dabo Swinney took the proclamations one step further: We expect to be back in this game next season, said Swinney, who had brought the Tigers within steps of the program’s first title in decades.