Ben Boulware

Ben Boulware is a business owner.

He's married.

He's usually asleep by 8 PM.

Boulware said even he's surprised that he's all grown up now. He's come a long way from his playing days as a bombastic, freewheeling force of nature for Clemson's football team.

"I'm 28," he said. "But I feel like I'm 58."

Boulware, co-owner of The Junkyard fitness centers, said it's been an adventure opening a location in downtown Clemson. 

Boulware is now the voice and face of Clemson's pre-game entrance to Death Valley, as a video booms his commands to the players and fans to give everything they have to sustain the Tigers' reputation for greatness.

Boulware remains close with Brent Venables, the most important figure in his playing career. He shares a story from 2014, his sophomore year, when he was upset that the wasn't starting over Tony Steward and he told Venables he was quitting the team.

Venables laughed and told him he wasn't going anywhere. Boulware started the next game, and by the end of the year he was contributing a pick-6 in the Tigers' bowl destruction of Oklahoma.

Two years later, Boulware was giving a speech at Death Valley as the fans and team celebrated the Tigers' 2016 national championship.