TAMPA, Fla. — When he saw Nick Saban last March, Dabo Swinney told the Alabama head coach at the time, “We’d see each other in Tampa, again.”

The meeting between the two head coaches was just two months removed from Alabama’s 45-40 victory over Clemson in last year’s national championship game, one of the greatest title games in the history of college football. Now, in what is dubbed “Alabama vs. Clemson: The Sequel” the two, just like Swinney said, are in Tampa, playing for the national championship, again.

“I thought that we were a young team,” Swinney said on Sunday from Tampa Convention Center during the College Football Playoff Championship Game coaches’ press conference. “We played about twenty-two seniors and juniors on our roster. We’re mostly a freshman and sophomore roster. We played a lot of freshmen last year, so I knew we were going to have a very strong sophomore group, but the seniors and juniors that we did have were impactful people.

“They were incredibly committed to our program, to the way we do things, to the standard in our program, and guys like Deshaun Watson, Ben Boulware, Mike Williams, Wayne Gallman, Carlos Watkins, and Jay Guillermo, these are very impactful leaders and I could just tell right out of the gate, from the very first meeting, that these guys were locked in.”

As for playing Clemson and Watson again, Saban said he would not have it any other way. Watson totaled a record 478 yards last year against Saban’s defense, including 405 yards and four touchdowns through the air.

“I think that based on competition, competitors, you want to play – you should expect to play the best team,” the five-time national champion coach said. “If you’re going to compete for a championship, I think certainly that Clemson deserves to be here, and I think they’re the best team, and I think our team deserves to be here, and they’ve done a great job all year to beat a lot of good teams to have the opportunity to get here, as well.

“If I was going to pick who the two best teams are, I would say the two best teams are here. And that’s the way it should be. That’s the way a playoff should be.”

Saban continued by saying that if he wants to be the best, they have to beat the best.

“I think that probably goes both ways for both teams,” he said. “So we’re excited about the challenge that we have to play against a great team that has great players, and we know we’re going to have to be our best as football players to have a chance to be successful against them.”

Despite the fact so many young people played this year for Clemson, Swinney said they drew a lot off of their veterans’ experiences from last year’s title game run. It’s the reason the Tigers went 6-1 in games decided by seven points or less and had come-from-behind four-quarter or overtime victories over Louisville, Florida State and NC State.

“I think they had an experience to draw upon that no other team I’ve had has had as far as what it takes. I was excited about the leadership and the talented young players that might mix in,” the Clemson coach said. “I knew we had a guy like Dexter Lawrence coming in that I thought may have a chance to help us early. The chemistry that I saw develop in the spring and carry over into the summer, the accountability. So those are things that I was excited about.

“But most of all, Deshaun Watson. I mean, I felt like he was the best player in the country coming back, and the type of worker he is and leader, you know, you’ve always got a chance when you can surround a great quarterback with a good cast. You know, the biggest question was whether or not we were going to be able to pull it all together defensively because we did lose seven or eight guys to the NFL. But I’m proud of these guys because we got it done to get here, and we’re going to try to finish.”