All the talk about Clemson vs. Alabama, the Trilogy, the rubber match and all of that, the top-ranked Tigers are not worried about any of that stuff. There only focus is playing Alabama, the 2017 version of Alabama football.

What happened in Arizona two years ago or last year in Tampa, none of that has anything to do with this game.

Would a Clemson win mean the Tigers are the new Kings or College Football?

“Who knows? We are just really focused on ourselves,” defensive end Clelin Ferrell said. “Obviously, we want to be that dynasty one day, and we feel like we are building towards that. But that is not for us to really talk about.

“That is more like for the fans and the people around college football who really watch the game. That is for them to decide on stuff like that. When we are done playing then we can throw our thoughts in.”

If Clemson, the No. 1 seed heading into the College Football Playoff, beats No. 4 Alabama and then goes on to win a second straight national championship, then it will be hard to not to claim the program as a new dynasty.

Besides winning back-to-back national championships, it would give the Tigers more wins than Alabama or anyone else over the last five years in college football. They would have played in three straight national championship games, had seven straight 10-win seasons and also would claim wins over Ohio State and Oklahoma in the process.

Heading into the Sugar Bowl, which will be played on New Year’s Day in New Orleans, Clemson is 82-14 since 2011. The only team with more wins in college football during that span … you guessed it, Alabama.

“I definitely do feel like we are right there with any team as far as how well we played for this decade,” Ferrell said. “This is the best decade for Clemson football in the history of the school and I feel like people are going to talk about this past couple of years and how we were playing ball for a long time to come.”

Ferrell does admit beating Alabama for a second time will hush some of the noise they hear or read about the Clemson program.

“I’m really excited to play Alabama and so are a lot of other guys on the team,” the defensive end said. “To go against Bama, there is really no excuse now. There is no excuse for people to say we have not played the best teams in the country.

“Hopefully, we use this chance and go on and beat Alabama and then beat the team who wins the other game. We are really excited for this opportunity.”