The Tigers face arguably one of the hottest teams at the end of the regular college football season in the Oklahoma Sooners.
Advertisement
Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio will look to devise a strong game plan in stopping Henry, and the Spartans defense has played well down the stretch of this season.
Clemson put together the program’s first 13-0 season with a 45-37 ACC Championship Game win over North Carolina, while the Sooners made the playoff with an 11-1 season, an impressive turnaround from a disappointing 8-5 campaign in 2014. The Tide lost to eventual national champion Ohio State in the Allstate Sugar Bowl. “Clearly Clemson is the No. 1 team in the nation”.
The final set of College Football Playoff rankings was revealed Sunday morning, with Clemson, Alabama, Michigan State and Oklahoma rounding out the top four.
Oklahoma won the Big 12 Conference outright for the first time since 2010 in the final year of a 12-team league. No. 2 Alabama will play No. 3 Michigan State at the Cotton Bowl in the nightcap of the December 31 doubleheader.
Long said there was much discussion surrounding the Nos.
“Last year’s game with Oklahoma has nothing to do with this year’s game”. “We felt like Iowa had proved more, almost, in a loss than they had in their previous body of work”, Long said, adding, “They were inches away from a victory”.
Perhaps the biggest debate was Michigan State finishing ahead of Oklahoma.
The 2013 Florida States, the 2009 Alabamas, the 1995 Nebraskas, the winners that mow down everyone in their path, come along in college football somewhere between once every Olympiad and once every Halley’s Comet.
“We’re going to play on edge”, Dantonio said. “We’re a different team”, Tigers coach Dabo Swinney said. “It will be a huge challenge for us to play against a great quarterback like Connor Cook”.
While Michigan State and Oklahoma both had losses to 5-7 teams, Michigan State boasts wins over the teams ranked No. 5 (Iowa), No. 7 (Ohio State), No. 14 (Michigan) and No. 15 (Oregon).
Sooner Club members will be notified via email within 24 hours of the bowl announcement regarding the number of tickets and parking they have qualified to receive, with a deadline of noon CT on Tuesday to cancel orders. Oklahoma, which finished last season by losing to the Tigers 40-6 in the Russell Athletic Bowl, began at No. 19, and didn’t enter the top 10 for good until it won at Baylor to improve to 9-1.
Clemson outscored opponents 500-263 this season, and though the Tigers were tested at times – Notre Dame could have forced overtime with a 2-point conversion in the final seconds of the teams’ October matchup – they never trailed in a fourth quarter. “I’ll be back at OU because I’m a victor”.
All the bickering was the main reason that the sport scrapped the Bowl Championship Series, which anointed only two teams to the title game, and why many around the sport believe it’s only a matter of time until the playoff expands to eight teams.
Advertisement
Venables’ defense ranks seventh in the country in total defense (295.7 yards allowed per game) and No. 18 in scoring defense (20.2 points allowed per game).
