Ben Boulware stepped on the stage with his coaches and teammates to celebrate the national championship, bleary-eyed yet keenly aware that this moment belonged not just to them.

This moment belonged to Clemson, to the players who cast their all-in poker chips with coach Dabo Swinney, to the administration that never stopped supporting them, to the fans who kept turning out year after year, always believing.

More than three decades had passed since Clemson won a national championship, years filled with some highlights but more than a few middling seasons. There were years when Wake Forest and Boston College surpassed them in the ACC, years when mediocrity became the norm and the coaches who came through could not quite figure out how to get Clemson back.

When Swinney took over midway through the 2008 season, it had been 18 years since the Tigers had won 10 games. He recognized the potential right away, understood Clemson had morphed into a classic underachiever because it had been a classic underachiever for so long. To become winners, they not only had to learn how to win; they had to believe they could win.

“When I got the job, there were lids on the program like, 'OK, Clemson, you can only do this, but don't go any higher than that,'” Swinney said this week. “You can win nine, but let's don't win 10. We just have slowly knocked off the lids off the program, and this was the last one. And to do it against Alabama, who's been the best, and the teams that we've played, the teams that we've beaten over the last eight years, there's just really -- I mean, we're selling results, bottom line.”

Deshaun Watson and Ben Boulware celebrate after Clemson won the national championship on Monday in Tampa. Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

There were no results to sell in the early going. Swinney knew that, so he sold belief. He told his recruits they would win a championship there. He got C.J. Spiller out of Florida; he flipped Tajh Boyd from more established programs; he got Deshaun Watson from the heart of Georgia Bulldogs country. He brought in elite players, but he also brought in hard workers, high-character guys and players who would all pull together for the greater good.

He passed out all-in chips to his players. He coined phrases such as “Be Uncommon” and “Best is the Standard.” He cultivated an atmosphere in which the expectation was to win, and he asked for more resources to help them get there. There were growing pains along the way, games they lost that they should have won. They became the punchline to jokes, the lid fixed tightly on whom they should beat and why.

Success never comes easily. Swinney knew the moment would come where belief took over and the games they should win became games they would win. Clemson has six straight 10-win seasons, back-to-back ACC titles and two national championship game appearances. They did all that with wins against Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Florida State, LSU, Auburn -- all teams that had won national titles more recently than Clemson.

They did it with players who remain a vital part of the program, always welcomed back, always in the Clemson family.

So when the moment came up on that stage, Boulware spoke off the cuff, but he spoke for himself, for his teammates and for Swinney. “I’m so happy for our family,” he said. “This is not for just us. This is for the Tajh Boyds, the Stephone Anthonys, the Grady Jarretts, the [DeAndre] Nuk Hopkinses, the Sammy Watkinses ... y’all built this. Y’all started this foundation, and all we did is build upon it and we finished it. It’s been 35 long years. Clemson has been waiting 35 years. It’s finally coming home, baby. It’s coming home.”

Former Clemson defensive end Vic Beasley watched at home. He heard the Boulware speech. “It’s special to hear him talk like that,” Beasley said in a phone interview. “Him remembering all the other players that he played with and who have come along through Clemson throughout his time there, definitely not forgetting the players that helped pave the way to help establish a great program like Clemson has become.”

Since taking over in 2008, Dabo Swinney fostered a belief in his players that they could be much better than just a good ACC program. Roy K. Miller/Icon Sportswire

Boyd and Spiller watched in person. So did former offensive lineman Eric Mac Lain, who played in the national championship game a year ago and watched from the stands in Tampa, Florida. “It was very thoughtful of him,” Mac Lain said. “He could have just been in the moment, solely thinking about himself, but he wasn’t. He was thinking about everyone who helped him and Clemson get to that point. It was really cool of him.”

Boulware later explained: “They showed me how to work and go to work and grind every day and become a leader. So those are the ones that started this foundation, and this senior class is the one to put the finishing touches on it. But you've got to give respect where respect has been earned, and all those guys earned all the respect from us and all the respect from our university.”

They all own a piece of this title, for blowing off those lids and getting Clemson where it always believed it should be. And maybe one day soon, a future Clemson player will thank Watson and Boulware and their teammates for setting a new standard to reach.

“The best is yet to come for us,” Swinney said. “I mean, this is not the end-all. It's a great moment, and it's something that we needed to get done. But you know, Thursday I'm going to have a team meeting with the 2017 team, and there will be a new group of seniors sitting in the front row, new challenges, new journey. We'll celebrate this weekend ... and then we'll start over.”