Clemson's push to reach the 2018 College Football Playoff began on Jan. 2, the day after the Tigers lost to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.
Like may programs, Clemson pushes its players in the offseason through an accountability draft. Strength coach Joey Batson explained the concept below:
"During the course of the year the teams will be given points for things they do very well -- be they grades, community service, anything to do with leadership," he said. "Also they can have points deducted for their team -- missing classes, tutors, appointments, things of that nature."
Basically, players are rewarded for doing things right off the field and punished for the opposite.
The brilliance of this idea unfolds in a myriad of ways:
1) Obviously, it encourages players to be good students and citizens.
2) But more than that, it forces the players to be held accountable not to their coaches, but to each other. Their teammates know who can be relied upon and who can't. The draft captains say as much in the video.
3) Thus, this exercise lays bare who can take care of their stuff and who can't, who is viewed as a good teammate and who isn't. By laying out where everyone stands, the accountability draft allows the strong links on each team to shore up the weak ones.
Or else they all have to run.