TAMPA, Fla. — Games like this were the reason C.J. Spiller stuck around for his senior season.

He very easily could have bolted for the NFL last spring and signed a lofty contract, but he knew there was something missing.
He knew he was leaving Clemson having left some kind of mark, but he didn’t just want to leave a mark. He wanted to leave a legacy.
“(This) is what I wanted to be at; a championship game, and graduating and doing all of that,” he said emotionally as a white towel rested along the game-weary running back’s shoulder pads.
But after watching his final college season end without a win, did he now feel regretful about the decision to return?
“Without a doubt, I’m very glad I came back,” Spiller said.
What was his only regret? Not winning the final conference game of his career.
Playing with the largest of chips on his shoulders Saturday night inside Raymond James Stadium, the tailback all but placed the final heavy stamp on a year that most had expected from him. It was the type of performance that allowed sportswriters to pick him as the ACC championship game’s MVP, even in a losing effort.
Setting numerous conference title-game records and career-highs, he tried to will the Tigers to a victory that might set their program on a course many did not foresee when head coach Dabo Swinney took over a team in shambles following the departure of Tommy Bowden a year ago.
“Hopefully guys can see, even recruits, (that) if you come to Clemson, it’s no layoff; you’re going to compete for championships year-in and year-out,” Spiller said.
Swinney believes that Spiller’s 234-yard, four-touchdown performance will help solidify that.
“I want to congratulate C.J. He left everything he had on the field,” Swinney said.
Much of the emotion Spiller referred to came halfway through the fourth quarter as the would-be conference championship game MVP ran for 54 yards before scoring from nine out several plays later. That final score — his fourth — gave the Tigers only their second lead of the high-scoring game.
The ACC’s lone Heisman candidate, Spiller was awarded the conference’s player of the year and offensive player of the year honors during a banquet in Tampa on Friday.
His preseason Heisman hype was so big that the Clemson sports information department even made a life-size poster of the speedy and elusive running back which it brought to the preseason ACC Media Kickoff.
Just because of who he was and the ability he had alone, Georgia Tech came into the game knowing it would have its hands full trying to shut him down.
“C.J. was making plays,” Georgia Tech B-back Jonathan Dwyer said. “They didn’t give him the ACC player of the year for nothing. He went out there and played a phenomenal game, which is definitely going to help him with the Heisman ballot and things like that.”
For Georgia Tech defensive end Derrick Morgan, who was named the ACC’s defensive player of the year last week, the task of stopping Spiller was extremely challenging.
“Like I’ve been saying all year, when you have a guy of that caliber, you’ve got to try to contain him,” Morgan said. “He’s a really talented player.”
In addition to running for scores of 36 and 41 yards, Spiller’s legend was increased Saturday for the sheer fact that he even left the game with an apparent foot injury in the second half.
Returning from the locker room after missing part of one series, he continued to pile onto his monster day.
Entering the game, he had been nursing a turf foe injury for much of the year.