Travis Etienne and the Clemson Tigers defeated Ohio State in last year’s College Football Playoff semifinals, and they’ll try to do it again Friday at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — Everybody loves a comeback story, and both No. 2 Clemson and No. 3 Ohio State arrive at the Sugar Bowl looking for redemption of sorts.
For Trevor Lawrence and the Tigers, this College Football Playoff semifinal brings them back to the site of last season’s national championship game loss to LSU.
For Justin Fields and the Buckeyes, the Sugar Bowl is a chance to avenge their last defeat, a thrilling semifinal against Clemson last year that effectively ended with Ohio State’s star quarterback being intercepted in the end zone.
“You’ve got to face a little bit of adversity and sometimes you’re a little bit blinded by success if you don’t have any hiccups along the way,” Lawrence said this week.
Clemson (10-1) and Ohio State (6-0) meet in the playoffs for the third time on Friday night, with the winner moving on to the national championship game against No. 1 Alabama or No. 4 Notre Dame on Jan. 11 in suburban Miami.
Clemson has won both previous CFP meetings. Throw in an Orange Bowl against the Buckeyes that the Tigers also won in 2014, and Ohio State-Clemson feels like a budding rivalry.
It certainly sounded like one at times leading up the game, starting with Clemson Coach Dabo Swinney’s insisting that Ohio State’s six-game schedule in this pandemic-altered season should not have been enough to earn a playoff spot.
Swinney slotted Ohio State 11th in his final coaches’ poll ballot, explaining he didn’t put any team with fewer than nine games in the top 10 – while also showering praise on the Buckeyes and Coach Ryan Day.
“So people take it personal, but it’s nothing personal at all,” Swinney said.
Day admitted with a grin on a Zoom news conference with Swinney this week that he was glad his counterpart wasn’t on the College Football Playoff selection committee.
The Buckeyes have heard the complaints about their path to the playoff.
“We’re going into this game not respected at all,” Ohio State All-America offensive lineman Wyatt Davis said.
Rivalry? The Tigers do not seem to have really bought into the idea.
“They have more beef with us than we have with them,” Clemson receiver Amari Rodgers said.
It has all made for an interesting subplot to a game that will almost certainly be the final one in college for the losing junior quarterback. Lawrence and Fields, both Georgia natives and former five-star recruits in the same freshman class, are expected to be among the first few players selected in the 2021 NFL draft.
Lawrence is a Heisman Trophy finalist and the presumptive No. 1 overall pick. He led the Tigers to a national championship as a freshman and got them back to the title game last season. Clemson is 34-1 with Lawrence as the starter.
“He’s as good as there’s ever been,” Swinney said. “I’ll let other people argue if he’s the best ever.”
Fields was a Heisman finalist last year and followed that up with a mostly excellent performance in the semifinal, passing for 320 yards. His final throw was picked off in the end zone after the intended receiver slipped.
Clemson won 29-23 in a game Ohio State led 16-0 that featured a couple of critical close calls by officials that went in favor of the Tigers.
“So that has kind of been our whole motivation this offseason. Just getting the chance to play those guys again is a great opportunity,” Fields said. “Of course, we know Clemson is a great team. Great coaching staff, great players. So we’re just excited to be on the same stage as them and getting another chance to play those guys.”
Clemson will be without offensive coordinator and play-caller Tony Elliott, who is in COVID-19 protocol and did not make the trip to New Orleans.
Swinney said quarterbacks coach Brandon Streeter will fill Elliott’s role in the coach’s box. Former Clemson star C.J. Spiller, who has been working as an intern under Elliott, will be elevated to running backs coach and will be on the sideline.
Ohio State has been without numerous players its last two games because of virus protocols, though star receiver Chris Olave is expected back in the lineup.
“Full strength is a floating target right now,” Day said.
ROSE BOWL: Playing a Rose Bowl deep in the heart of Texas is anything but normal. Top-ranked Alabama being in a College Football Playoff semifinal is nothing new.
The Southeastern Conference champion Crimson Tide (11-0) are in a familiar position despite the chaos of playing during the pandemic. No. 4 Notre Dame, which finished runner-up in the Atlantic Coas Conference after temporarily giving up its cherished independent status, gets another playoff chance two years after a big thud in the same stadium.
“We’re going to keep knocking at the door. We don’t listen to the narratives about what Notre Dame can and can’t do,” Fighting Irish Coach Brian Kelly said Thursday. “We’re just excited that we’re going to keep banging at this door and we’re going to get through.”
These Irish (10-1) go into the relocated Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day as three-touchdown underdogs against Alabama and the Tide’s Heisman Trophy finalists, quarterback Mac Jones and receiver DeVonta Smith. The game was moved to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, from its traditional home in Pasadena because of COVID-19 restrictions in California that would have kept family – and any other fans – from attending.
When the Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium was a semifinal two years ago, Notre Dame lost 30-3 to eventual national champion Clemson in its only previous CFP appearance.
The semifinal winners are scheduled to play Jan. 11 in suburban Miami, where eight seasons ago in the BCS national championship game Alabama trounced Notre Dame 42-14 in the last meeting between the storied programs.
“Even after going undefeated that year, we lost in the national championship game, and we were looked at as not a very good football team,” Kelly said. “We needed to look at the things that could help us grow. And we’ve been doing that each and every year.”
Notre Dame is still trying to catch up with Alabama, which is in a CFP semifinal for the sixth time after missing the final four for the only time last year. The Tide are 4-0 at the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, including a 38-0 win over Michigan State five seasons ago on the way to a national championship. They won another title, their fifth under Coach Nick Saban, three seasons ago.
“It means a lot to come back here reach our destination, to keep on building the standard here,” All-American cornerback Patrick Surtain II said.
“We just want to take advantage of where we’re at,” said Jones, the junior who has thrown for 3,739 yards and 32 touchdowns with four interceptions in his first full season as the starter. “We’re finally where we want to be.”
Alabama will be without All-America center Landon Dickerson, a team captain who is recovering from surgery after injuring his knee late in the SEC title game.
“He’s been a great leader on our team and will certainly be missed,” Saban said.
Chris Owens, a senior from Arlington, Texas, will be the starting center against the Irish.
Alabama’s offense has Heisman finalists Jones and Smith, plus a big-scoring, dual-threat tailback in Najee Harris, who has rushed for 1,262 yards and 24 touchdowns, and caught 32 passes for 316 yards and three more scores.
Smith has 98 catches for 1,511 yards and 17 TDs. Jones has completed 76.5% of his passes for 3,739 yards with 32 touchdowns and four interceptions.
Ian Book, a fifth-year senior and two-time captain, is Notre Dame’s winningest starting quarterback at 30-4. He has thrown for 2,601 yards and 15 TDs, with 430 yards rushing and eight touchdowns. Sophomore running back Kyren Williams has 1,061 yards rushing and 12 TDs, and Javon McKinley has four 100-yard receiving games.
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