Clemson eyes playoff return
Must take care of business vs. Notre Dame in ACC title game
The stage is set for a marquee Top 25 showdown in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game this weekend.
Everyone watching will be eager to see if Notre Dame can upend Clemson again now that the Tigers have starting quarterback Trevor Lawrence back in the lineup.
The Fighting Irish beat then top-ranked Clemson in a thrilling 47-40 doubleovertime shootout earlier this season. But Lawrence was sidelined because of COVID-19, and spent the game watching from the sideline in a mask.
But the projected No. 1 pick in the 2021 NFL draft will be front and center in today’s highly anticipated rematch.
“He’s a proven winner,” said Notre Dame defensive end Daelin Hayes. “He’s played in a lot of big games. That calm, that cool. ... You can’t put a price on that experience.”
Maybe not a price, but with him in the lineup, fourth-ranked Clemson (9-1, 8-1 ACC, No. 3 CFP) is a 10 1/2-point favorite to beat No. 2 Notre Dame (10-0, 9-0, No. 2 CFP) in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship and earn its sixth consecutive berth in the College Football Playoff.
Hayes has seen what Lawrence can do first hand, remembering well how the long-haired QB led Clemson to a 30-3 win over the Irish in the Sugar Bowl in 2018 en route to winning the national championship.
“It feels good to be at the point where we knew we would be,” Lawrence said. “We weren’t perfect, obviously, but you don’t have to be perfect. These next three games, hopefully, are huge. That’s been our goal the whole time.”
To play three more games the Tigers may have to win today.
No two-loss team has ever been selected for the College Football Playoff since its inception in 2014.
While Lawrence’s return is the key storyline entering the game, Clemson’s offensive production wasn’t necessarily the problem in the first matchup. Freshman D.J. Uiagalelei threw for 439 yards and two touchdowns and ran for a third score in the last meeting, although the Tigers were held to 1 yard per carry on the ground.
Clemson’s defense was the bigger issue.
Ian Book, the winningest QB in Notre Dame history, lit up Clemson for 310 yards passing, while sophomore Kyren Williams ran for 140 yards and three TDs against an overwhelmed defense.
But Clemson hopes that unit will be bolstered by the return of linebacker James Skalski, who is considered the heart and soul of the Tigers defense. Like Lawrence, he didn’t play in the first game.
The Tigers have won five straight ACC titles under coach Dabo Swinney, while Notre Dame is seeking its first ever conference title after spending 131 years as an independent. Win or lose, unbeaten Notre Dame would seem to be a lock for the four-team playoff.
Bama is back
Alabama’s slump lasted all of one season.
After failing to reach either the Southeastern Conference championship game or the College Football Playoff a year ago — what qualifies as a subpar season in Tuscaloosa — the Crimson Tide is back on track to claim another national title.
Nick Saban’s top-ranked team (10-0, No. 1 CFP) has successfully navigated — dominated, actually — an SEC-only gauntlet of a regular season brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Tide had won every game by at least 15 points. Its average margin of victory is a whopping 32.7 points.
Now, it’s on to the league title game in Atlanta as a heavy favorite tonight against No. 11 Florida (8-2, No. 7 CFP), which likely ruined its hopes of reaching the four-team playoff with a shocking home loss last weekend to LSU.
“It’s been a very disruptive year from the whole COVID standpoint,” said Saban who was stricken with the virus himself and couldn’t coach in an Iron Bowl victory over rival Auburn. “But our players have done a good job of handling that, shown a lot of maturity.”
Saban has built what is very likely the most dominant dynasty in college football history over his 14 years at Alabama.
Six SEC titles. Five national championships.
At age 69, he shows no signs of slowing down. Just this week, Alabama landed what appears to be the topranked recruiting class in the country for 2021.
“It’s all part of the culture that we try to create,” Saban said. “When people come here, that’s the expectation that they have. That’s what they buy into.”
In his third year at Florida, coach Dan Mullen led the Gators to the SEC title game for the first time since 2016 behind the dynamic passing of Kyle Trask, who has thrown for 40 touchdowns in the shortened season — 10 more than anyone else in the country.
But Florida’s hopes of reaching the national playoff likely ended with a shoethrowing, 37-34 loss to LSU.
No two-loss team has reached the playoff since it began in 2014.
Mullen tried to sound a confident tone for the Gators, who were a 17-point underdog to the Crimson Tide.
“We’ll think about that on Saturday night after we win,” he said, perhaps providing some bulletin-board fodder for his opponent. “That’s all we can control. What happens after that, we’ll see what happens.”
Northwestern eyes OSU upset
Northwestern quarterback Peyton Ramsey grew up around the Ohio State mystique, the son of a high school football coach in Cincinnati.
As others in the footballcrazed state gathered round television sets to watch their beloved Buckeyes each weekend, Ramsey was never much of a fan. Still isn’t.
So today, the quarterback for No. 15 Northwestern will try to cap his college career by knocking No. 3 Ohio State off its Big Ten perch — and perhaps out of the playoff.
“I was a Notre Dame fan growing up, but I was a Big Ten fan,” Ramsey said. “This will be my fifth time playing against them, it’s always been exciting. It’s always been fun to go out and compete against the big boys.”
Even if the first four tries didn’t exactly go Ramsey’s way, all four while he was suiting up with Indiana. When he transferred to Northwestern after last season, it looked like Ramsey might be finished with the Buckeyes (5-0 Big Ten, No. 4 CFP).
Instead, Ramsey won the starting job and led the Wildcats (7-1) back to their second Big Ten championship game in three years.
The reward: Another date with East Division champion Ohio State.
Two years ago, the Buckeyes pulled away from Northwestern late to secure a 45-24 victory and a schoolrecord tying second straight outright title. Now, they’re back looking to make it four in a row .
Ohio State has hung onto the No. 4 spot in the rankings for weeks and though some have argued the ACC should get two teams in — No. 2 Notre Dame and No. 4 Clemson — Ohio State coach Ryan Day insists his team belongs.
“We’ve had an amazing amount of challenges, way more than anybody else in the country, in my opinion,” Day said. “The minute we went back in inside in November, December the (COVID-19) numbers just jumped through the roof. We’ve had disappointments, we’ve had games canceled, we’ve had the season canceled.
“We have really talented young men who stuck together,” he added. “And if people can’t see that, then that’s their problem.”