Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson showed off the Orange Bowl trophy after defeating Oklahoma.
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It hurt to see him go out the way he did, and it hurts knowing his days in the Scarlet and Gray are over. Thomas hasn’t said definitively that he’s leaving for the National Football League or staying in school.
Watson completed 287 of 413 passes for 3,512 yards and 30 touchdowns, leading Clemson to the Atlantic Coast Conference championship and an undefeated season.
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Miami: QB Brad Kaaya is fifth on the school’s all-time passing list with 6,217 yards, ahead of Bernie Kosar and Vinny Testaverde . Kaaya has thrown for 3,019 yards this season and 15 touchdowns, and Yearby has racked up 1,212 total yards and eight touchdowns.
Clemson University, having its best football season in decades, will face off for the national title against perennial power Alabama later this month after both teams won semifinal games Thursday night.
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Ezekiel Elliott ran for 149 yards and matched a Fiesta Bowl record with four touchdowns, sparking Ohio State’s prolific offense . Already prominently in NCAA record books, McCaffrey needed all of 11 seconds to write his name into the Rose Bowl annals.
Clemson (14-0) dominated the second half and shut down Oklahoma’s high-scoring offense, which had averaged 52 points over its past seven games. The Sooners (11-2) actually came into the game as favorites, but the Tigers showed their flawless record was no fluke.
The second game in the playoff, the Cotton Bowl in Dallas’ AT&T Stadium, featured second-seeded Alabama and third-seeded Michigan State.
Quarterback and Heisman finalist Deshaun Watson sparked the Tigers offense with a total of 332 yards and two touchdowns. He was let go in 2000 after head coach Gene Stallings was sacked.
Coach Bob Stoops shook up his staff and guided the Sooners within two victories of their first national title since 2000. He had 150 yards of considerable help from running back Wayne Gallman, of whom Coach Dabo Swinney said, “He’s got over 1,500 yards this year, and he’s just a sophomore, you know?”
“I didn’t feel like anything they were doing was overwhelming us”, OU offensive lineman Ty Darlington said.
“I think the players learned a lot from what happened in the game previous year”, Saban said after Thursday’s convincing win over the outmatched Spartans.
The defense was even more impressive, especially since star end Shaq Lawson was knocked out of the game in the opening minutes with a knee injury.
A team once known for such inexplicable stumbles that a derisive term was coined for it Clemsoning blew out the No. 4 Sooners over the final two quarters after trailing 17-16 at halftime. He led the team to the first championship win in school history after the 1982 Orange Bowl against Nebraska, and said he thinks the Tigers can take home the title again this year.
“It shouldn’t be real hard to get guys ready to play for the National Championship”. That game featured the most successful active college football coach, Alabama’s Nick Saban, and Michigan State’s coach Mark Dantonio – who once served as an assistant coach to Saban at Michigan State.
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Watson ran for 149 yards and passed for another 187 on Thursday.
