THE WEST ZONE message board | SHOP NOW: DEALS on CLEMSON apparel

Had the 2015 Clemson team made one or two more plays here and there and beaten Alabama in Glendale, no one would be looking back and talking about the one or two players here and there whose minds were elsewhere.

But that's just it: Clemson didn't make those plays. Clemson lost 45-40 in the national championship. And Eric Mac Lain, who played his last college game that night, will always think back and wonder what might have been.

"A couple of guys had checked out and were thinking about the NFL Draft and didn't want to give their all," he said.