NCAA College Football National Semifinal - Late Game
NCAA National Semifinal Late Game
All times Eastern
Click here for Alabama - Notre Dame.
Friday, January 1
Sugar Bowl
The Buckeyes were scheduled for eight regular season games, all against Big Ten opponents, but games at Maryland and Illinois, along with the traditional season-ender with Michigan, all were cancelled. Otherwise, the Buckeyes went about their business, scoring as many as 52 points twice and no less than 38 in their five Big Ten games.
In the conference championship meeting with Northwestern, Ohio State ran into a buzzsaw of a defense that stymied quarterback Justin Fields and the Buckeye passing game and kept Ohio State in unfavorable field positions for most of the game.
Fields finished just 12-for-27, for 114 yards, no TDs and two interceptions. It was his worst performance of his collegiate career, leading to a 10-6 half time lead for the Wildcats. However, the second half belonged to running back Trey Sermon, who bailed out Fields and the Buckeyes with 331 yards rushing on 29 carries and two touchdowns for the game.
Credit Northwestern for a stout defense, especially in the secondary, and a quality game plan for an offense that isn't a dominant force. Ohio State prevailed over the #5 scoring defense in the country. Northwestern yielded only 15.5 points per game on average.
One other notable game for Ohio State was their 42-35 win over an impressive Indiana team that returned something on the order of 19 starters from 2019. The Hoosier offense was led by QB Michael Penix Jr., who proved nearly a match for the Ohio State offense. In the end, the Buckeyes defense made plays at opportune times to seal the victory.
Clemson comes into the fracas with a 10-1 record as the #2 seed in the playoffs. As usual, the Tigers waltzed through their ACC schedule with aplomb, hammering opponents like Wake Forest, 37-13, Virginia, 41-23, Miami, 42-17, Georgia Tech, 73-7, Pitt, 52-17. Outside of their mid-season 47-40, 2OT loss at Notre Dame - a game in which QB Trevor Lawrence did not participate - and a 34-28 win over Boston College in which Lawrence was also on the bench, Clemson's victories were all by margins of 18 points or more, including their revenge win over Notre Dame, 34-10, in the ACC championship.
In that championship meeting with the #4 seed Irish, the Tigers were dominant in the first half, rolling to a 24-3 half time lead before meeting some resistance in the second half but still outscoring Notre Dame 10-7. With that victory, Clemson clearly became #2 behind Alabama and not by a very wide margin.
As the Clemson offense appears to be peaking at the right time, so too their defense. Outside of that loss at Notre Dame, no team has scored more than 28 points (Boston College), and only two others - Syracuse and Virginia - have scored more than 20. The other seven victims were all held to 17 points or fewer. Clemson's defense is the stingiest of the four playoff teams, yielding only 17.5 points per game. They also allow fewer than 100 yards rushing per game, which means Ohio State's Justin Fields will be throwing more often than even he may prefer.
These same two met in one of last season's semifinals, Clemson emerging with the 29-23 win, but Ohio State lost a lot of quality players to graduation, especially on the defensive side of the ball, giving Clemson a big advantage with Lawrence and Etienne and an experienced offensive line.
This semifinal will not be as close as last year's, but the winner and loser will be the same.
Coin Flip: Clemson
Prediction: Tigers 38 Buckeyes 27
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National Semifinal Early Game
8:00 pm #3 Ohio State vs. #2 Clemson (-7 1/2, 66 1/2) - Because the COVID condition made a mess of college football this season, Ohio State was only able to complete six games, though they managed to win all of them, some by impressive margins.
The Tigers are as good as any team in the country and better than 99% of them. Trevor Lawrence will be taking snaps in the NFL next season. His leadership and extraordinary skills are not often contained and the Ohio State defense is going to have a very difficult time trying to stop both him and running back Travis Etienne, who is a dangerous runner with power and breakaway speed who can also terrorize opposing defenses catching balls out of the backfield or from slot positions.
