After his defense dominated the College Football Playoff semifinal at the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl with a 31-0 victory over Ohio State, Clelin Ferrell emerged from Clemson's locker room with a wide grin plastered across his face and a victory cigar planted between his teeth. He followed star quarterback Deshaun Watson into a news conference and took questions on his role as the Tigers' defensive player of the game.
A month earlier, Ferrell was the anonymous member of a dominant defensive line, at best a Ringo to Christian Wilkins' John, Carlos Watkins' Paul or Dexter Lawrence's George. Now, on Clemson's biggest stage of the season, he'd blossomed into a superstar.
For the rest of the world, Ferrell was an overnight sensation. For defensive coordinator Brent Venables, this was just another benchmark in the long road to success for his freshman defensive end.
"He's getting there," Venables said of the progress Ferrell displayed on the national stage. "That was a step closer. But his best football is still all in front of him."
Venables pegged Ferrell as a future star in 2013 when Clemson offered a scholarship to the kid from Benedictine College Preparatory, a private high school with a military background in Richmond, Virginia. Then Ferrell missed his senior high school season with a torn ACL and arrived at Clemson underprepared and too weak to handle blockers at the college level. A hand injury in fall camp last year essentially assured a redshirt season.
"I redshirted because I wasn't ready, and I had NFL guys in front of me," Ferrell said. "It was the best thing for me to sit out and learn the system and develop my body physically."
Bottom line, Ferrell went two full years without taking a meaningful snap, and while Venables still saw a raw talent, there was ample refinement necessary before Ferrell's potential could be tapped.
That's where Venables saw Ferrell's true star turn -- not in a breakout game against Virginia Tech for the ACC championship or in a monster performance against Ohio State, but on those lonely days in the weight room when Ferrell was the last guy still working.
"He's done extra in the weight room when he doesn't have to," Venables said. "He values the opportunity to meet and do a walk-through. Not everybody's like that."
Behind the scenes, Venables saw linear progress. On the field, however, Ferrell's success was marked by fits and starts.
Through his first four games of the season against some of Clemson's weakest competition, Ferrell was an absentee pass-rusher. He finished that stretch with just one tackle for loss and no sacks.
By October, however, he appeared on the verge of a breakthrough. Against Louisville -- in a prime-time, top-10 matchup -- he dropped Heisman winner Lamar Jackson in the backfield twice. He turned in a couple of solid performances in the next few weeks and finished the month with two more tackles for loss in a victory over Florida State. Then November came and Ferrell again disappeared from the stat sheet.
Chalk it up to the grind of a long season for a kid who hadn't played real football since 2013. From his perspective, Ferrell still viewed Louisville as his breakthrough game, a turning point. But he was still green, still learning what it took to not simply have one strong performance but to put together a great season.
"It was a tough process, but I'm lucky I had the right people around me," Ferrell said. "My coaches, I'd do anything for those guys. I'd run through a wall for those guys. It was tough, but I'm happy because when I got my opportunity, I was able to take advantage of it."
In the week leading up to the ACC championship game, something seemed to click. On the first play of the game, Ferrell exploded off the edge and found Virginia Tech QB Jerod Evans in the backfield, planting him for a 4-yard loss. It was Ferrell's first sack in more than a month, and it was a sign of things to come.
"Where he started the beginning of the year, he's gotten better and better the whole season," Venables said. "It's not real magical. He's just worked really hard."
Before the season began, Venables lauded the potential of his young defensive end. Ferrell comes from a military family, the youngest of the bunch with older brothers who kept him in line. Venables saw a kid ready to work. At some point this season, Venables assured, Ferrell would become a star.
It took three full months of play for Venables' prediction to come true, but as Clemson prepares for its biggest challenge yet in a rematch against Alabama in the College Football Playoff National Championship Presented by AT&T, Ferrell has arrived just in time.
"This is the stage we've been working for since day one," Ferrell said. "Coming here, I expected to play in the big games, and I expect myself to play well."