Clemson linebacker Ben Boulware is one of those players you love to coach and despise to coach against -- always looking for an edge, whether it was inside or slightly outside the rule book.
Earlier this season, Boulware found an edge when Desmond Howard said on College GameDay he thought Clemson's linebackers weren't good enough to stop Florida State running back Dalvin Cook.
Via The Clemson Insider:
“Defensively, when I watch Dalvin Cook, Florida State’s running back do … and he is an elite running back and there is no doubting that. He is a special talent. But they are supposed to have a special defense, too. I think their achilles heel may be their linebackers. They are good straight ahead, but as far as going east and west, sideline to sideline, Dalvin Cook turned the corner whenever he wanted to against that defense. I need to see the linebackers play a little better, too, from Clemson.”
That's a standard-issue take, one that the typical GameDay viewer would consider and then cast aside, never to be consumed again. Boulware, though, will carry it with him the rest of his life.
For the record, Cook did rush for 169 yards and four touchdowns that night, though Clemson did fight from an 8-point fourth quarter deficit to win 37-34.
Now the Tigers are national champions, and Boulware will carry bragging rights with him on his skin for the rest of his life with a tattoo that, 20 years from now, Uncle Ben will be begging his nieces and nephews to ask, "Hey, how'd you get that tattoo?"