FROM THE TIGER FAN SHOP: Click HERE for more in-season DEALS on officially-licensed CLEMSON apparel and gear!

CLEMSON -- Clemson has that slogan it's always reserved for this time of year: "Championship Phase."

It almost always applies, because like clockwork they are almost always playing their best football when the biggest football games are being played.

Not that they can't overcome this news and continue right where they left off 11 days ago against Notre Dame.

Join Tigerillustrated.com subscribers on The West Zone message board!

But Championship Phase just doesn't feel right this season, largely because it feels too organized and categorized and calendar-ized.

Here in 2020 -- and Lord we can hope only here in 2020 -- maybe they make a one-time adaptation to another phrase more befitting of the craziness endured.

How about: "Scramble Drill."

Having already learned Nov. 21 under a big circus tent in Tallahassee to expect not only the unexpected but the unexplainable, this football team had already been hardened by such jolts.

Learning a few weeks earlier that Trevor Lawrence had tested positive for COVID surely brought pandemic-era realities to the doorstep of Dabo Land.

And now here they were this afternoon, almost the entire team hopping onto the endless procession of socially-distanced buses to head to GSP Airport for the flight to New Orleans.

Almost the entire team because offensive coordinator Tony Elliott was headed across Lake Hartwell to his home in Seneca.

Where he will be on Friday night when Clemson faces Ohio State in the CFP semifinal.

Read that again.