CLEMSON — In the winter of 2005, C.J. Spiller was the top football recruit in the state of Florida and a lifelong fan of Florida State, which had won or shared 12 of the last 14 Atlantic Coast Conference championships.

“I grew up dreaming that after Warrick Dunn got done there, I’d go in and beat all his records and wear the same number he wore,” he said.

Dabo Swinney, meanwhile, was a third-year assistant coach at Clemson who made the trip to Union County High School to visit one of Spiller’s teammates, linebacker Kevin Alexander, when coach Buddy Nobles introduced the two.

Swinney invited Spiller to visit Clemson, and when the prized prospect said he would, the coach drew up an impromptu contract on the back of a business card in hopes of binding that agreement.

“I guess he must’ve known I was a man of my word, and we just wrote it down and had me sign it, he signed it and a couple of my teammates signed it,” Spiller recalls.

In January, Spiller ultimately made good on the deal and flew into Atlanta, where Swinney picked up the star tailback at the airport. And during the two-plus hour ride back to campus, he got a chance to make his pitch.

“He does a good job of selling his program and keeping it straight,” Spiller said. “You do what you can to get the recruit. But Coach Swinney, the thing he did for me, he kept it straight.”

It was only once Spiller arrived on Clemson’s campus, however, that he began to seriously consider actually playing his college ball there.

“When I came on my visit, as soon as I got to the hotel — my mom could probably tell you the story — I called her and told her that this was a place I probably could come for four years and play,” he said. “And she was shocked, because on my other visits I never did that.”

Still, Mom was somewhat less than convinced.

“When I got back home, I kept talking about it and she wasn’t feeling what I was feeling,” Spiller said. “And then when she came up here for the Spring Game, she understood. And I chose to come here.”

The rest, as they say, is history. And Saturday night, Spiller and the Tigers (5-3, 3-2 ACC) will take the field for a nationally televised game against the team he once dreamed of playing for.

But between that recruiting trip in early 2006 and the present, the roles have changed for most all involved. Spiller is now a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate, having already broken the ACC’s all-purpose career yardage record and having tallied a play of 60 yards or more in the Tigers’ first seven games this season. Swinney is obviously now the Tigers’ head coach, and for the first time in 19 meetings in the series, the Seminoles (4-4, 2-3) come in as an unranked team.

After losing 11 straight to FSU prior to 2003, meanwhile, Clemson enters the game having won four of the last six against the Seminoles and favored by better than a touchdown this time around.

And with the driver’s seat in the ACC Atlantic race clearly at stake, Spiller says it’s only fitting that the two teams that have won more ACC titles than any others should meet.

“If you want to be the best in the business, you’ve got to go against other people that’s the best,” he said. “And to have so much at stake, going up against a team like Florida State, it’s going to probably be an ESPN Classic game come Saturday.”

Clearly, having the game picked by ESPN to be nationally televised in primetime is an indication of not only its importance but also the excitement surrounding it.

Swinney, however, has repeatedly made the point that the team’s respective levels of excitement have very little to do with which team ultimately comes out victorious.

“Certainly, everybody understands the importance of it, but it’s more about focus on what it takes to win the ball game,” Swinney said. “As opposed to the hype of a game, or who’s coaching or all that other jazz — what time you’re playing, what TV station you’re on — all that stuff is for everybody else to get excited about.”

Nevertheless, only adding to the hype is the fact that Spiller has played himself squarely into the Heisman conversation and apparently has an opportunity to put together something of a live highlight reel on national TV against a team that ranks dead last in the ACC in total defense.

Swinney, however, said that statistic would be completely irrelevant come Saturday.

“This is Florida State, and these cats, they know how to play football,” Swinney said. “Just like I knew we were a better team than what we showed at Maryland, they’re a better team than what their stats show, defensively. … This is Clemson-Florida State, and it’ll be a classic.”

As for the game’s importance toward Spiller’s Heisman hopes, Swinney said he hadn’t even given that aspect a second’s thought.

“If C.J. plays like he’s capable of, that’ll all take care of itself,” Swinney said. “I’m really not worried about that. If he continues to play like he’s played the first half of the season, if he’s not there (in New York for the ceremony) then they ought to not give the trophy out. They shouldn’t even have it.”