Not a lot has changed since January 3, 2014.
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Williams chuckled in mid-question when the subject came up Wednesday, three days before No. 2 Clemson is to play No. 3 Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl in one of two national championship semifinals.
Sports’ Paul Myerberg looks ahead to the New Year’s Eve playoff game between Clemson and Ohio State. Their championship hopes faded with a loss to Michigan State in the second-to-last game of the season.
No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Clemson landed at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport late Monday afternoon about an hour apart.
Swinney said Heisman voters likely were numbed by Watson’s wonderful play over three years. It’s no secret Mike Williams (84 catches) is the go-to receiver for quarterback Deshaun Watson. Watson then displays his elusiveness and tackle-breaking ability, before ultimately hitting the gas and exploding through the secondary. So it’s a very good team.
Since OSU doesn’t have a ton of experience against dual-threat quarterbacks, Watson could run the ball more to add another dimension to Clemson’s No. 12 total offense. “I think we’re going to be at a good place”.
Ohio State hasn’t faced a better set of receivers this season. Watson had seven games this season with three-plus passing touchdowns, but he also threw multiple interceptions in four games.
The Buckeyes also have an explosive playmaker in Samuel who can break big plays and score long touchdowns out of the backfield or split out wide.
Ohio State does struggle to complete downfield throws, which gives an advantage to a stingy Clemson defense that has never struggled to get in the backfield and force plenty of incompletions. The Buckeyes were talented, but that had been a rough year of luck, losing Braxton Miller before Week 1 and then J.T. Barrett prior to the Big Ten title game. He reaped the dividends by earning his first head coaching job with the Cincinnati Bearcats, but he’s got a job to finish at Ohio State before he starts working full time for UC.
It is not a play, a formation or even a particular player. But it’s hard to imagine either team developing a significant edge here.
Quarterback J.T. Barrett, running back Mike Weber and athletic runner/receiver Samuel helped Ohio State average 480 yards and 40.2 points a game. The second half issues against Louisville, FSU, and VT all occurred because each team found a way to run the ball.
Clemson’s defensive line is loaded, despite the unit’s relative weakness against the run. Senior defensive tackle Carlos Watkins and Co. have been driven by that setback to the Crimson Tide, because a win was there for the taking. Barrett makes no plays over 20 yards throwing it, so they need to find a few somewhere.
Clemson has several different weapons on offense that are more than capable of making game-changing plays. It’s a team that has forged a stronger identity because of what they have gone through this season.
The three-year-old FBS national championship playoff format is neither the Ohio State open nor the Clemson invitational, but it has skewed that way.
Ohio State and Clemson are going to trade punches throughout the night as we get closer and closer to 2017. Sling has dozens of other channels as part of their streaming service, so you can get a great replacement for cable here as well. If North Carolina State doesn’t miss a gimme field-goal attempt at the end of regulation, the Fiesta is an Ohio State/Penn State rematch. This game is a closer matchup, in most people’s minds, than Alabama-Washington.
Western Michigan ran the table in the MAC this year, grabbing the mid-major slot in the New Year’s Six bowls.
Both teams held the lead numerous times in the football game. Party’s over for the Broncos, it seems.
Elflein and Malik Hooker became the first pair of Ohio State teammates to be named consensus All-Americans in the same year since Orlando Pace and Eddie George in 1995.
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Peter Berkes writes about college football for Roar Lions Roar and Every Day Should Be Saturday. Clemson stumbled only once, against eventual Pinstripe Bowl loser Pittsburgh, but the Tigers did enough to get back to the CFP and this Fiesta Bowl semifinal.
