While most pundits spent the offseason lauding the stockpile of skill talent Clemson’s offense had accumulated, the Tigers’ coaches quickly realized they had a problem.

The depth chart was flush with no fewer than a dozen players whose talent and work ethic had earned them touches, and half those players were looking to build résumés for a 2017 arrival in the NFL draft. When they met for their yearly retreat in July, the obvious question was posed: How the heck was the coaching staff supposed to find enough footballs to go around?

It isn't that ego was a major worry, co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott said. He knew his guys and knew they didn’t crave the spotlight. But there were established stars with real expectations, rising youngsters who needed work and incoming freshmen with off-the-charts potential. And for all the talk of last year’s bitter loss in the national championship game, Clemson had scaled a rather sizable mountain in 2015. It wasn’t unreasonable to assume that players with eyes toward pro careers might be more interested in their own stats than the greater good.

“We had a lot of talented guys that, if they were at a lot of other schools, they probably would’ve been the premier playmaker and get a lot of the balls,” Scott said. “It’s a blessing, but also it brings challenges.”

The easiest thing to do, Scott figured, was address the elephant in the room on day one. Before fall camp started, in the first meeting of the year, the coaching staff called each offensive star to the front of the room.

Deshaun Watson and Mike Williams, Wayne Gallman and Artavis Scott, Ray-Ray McCloud and Jordan Leggett, Deon Cain and Hunter Renfrow -- they all lined up alongside each other, unsure what the coaches had in store.

Jeff Scott held up a football and posed the question.

“It’s not possible for this one ball to go around to all of you guys in every game,” he said. “So what is our goal?”

The coaches hammered home the point with a bit of a history lesson. In that same meeting room, myriad stars once sat, from C.J. Spiller to Sammy Watkins to DeAndre Hopkins to Tajh Boyd. They all won awards and basked in the national spotlight. What they didn’t have was a national championship -- something the 2016 team can bring home Monday if they can best unbeaten Alabama in the College Football Playoff National Championship presented by AT&T.

“It put the stamp on it,” Watson said. “They said it. We understood it. We went through it throughout the summer, and that just let everyone realize it.”

For Watson, this has been a blessing. Sure, the coordinators script the game plan, but once the ball is snapped, the responsibility of distributing the football shifts.

“There’s only one guy who has to deal with that, and it’s Deshaun,” Leggett said.

That job, Watson said, has been remarkably simple this season.

“Just find the open guy and get that person the ball,” he said.

That isn't to say there haven’t been challenges.

When Clemson struggled to get past Troy in Week 2, Tigers fans wondered why Watson hadn’t run the ball more.

When Watson threw a whopping 70 times in a loss to Pitt, there were questions of why Gallman didn’t get more touches.

As Williams’ star skyrocketed throughout the year, the lack of throws to Leggett and Artavis Scott became a nagging concern from media.

The truth is, even the players had to wonder at times. Leggett was poised to enter the NFL draft after a successful 2015 season, but at the last minute, he changed course and returned for his senior year. His reward, after three games, was exactly one catch for 9 yards.

“It wasn’t going as I’d planned,” he said, “but then it blew up for me.”

During a four-game stretch that included narrow wins over Louisville, NC State and Florida State, Leggett had 15 catches for 314 yards and three touchdowns, and it became clear that the coaching staff had been saving him for Clemson’s biggest moments. Patience, he realized, was a virtue on this team.

The same was true for Gallman, who disappeared from the game plan for stretches in the loss to Pitt but had 283 yards and three touchdowns in his next two games.

“Our offensive coordinators have pretty much a whole set of things we can do because we have so many playmakers, so there will be times I’m not getting the ball a lot,” Gallman said. “If we win the game, I’m fine with that. I do want touches, but to win the game, I’m fine.”

Scott insists that is par for the course. Through all the divergent game plans, the wins have come consistently, and the frustrations have been minimal. Plenty of Clemson players earned award recognition, and when the season is over, there won’t be a dearth of tape on the Tigers’ stars for NFL scouts to scour.

And now here they are, one win away from that championship trophy Scott promised before the season began.

“Our main focus was always getting the wins,” Watson said. “We don’t care about the personal stats. We’re trying to win and have fun and win a national championship. Whatever it takes to do that.”