’Bama, Notre Dame move clash to Texas
No. 2 Clemson, No. 3 Ohio State ready for battle in New Orleans
ARLINGTON, TEXAS » Playing a Rose Bowl game deep in the heart of Texas is anything but normal. Top-ranked Alabama being in a College Football Playoff semifinal game is nothing new.
The SEC 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 ACC 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 1 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 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 No. 2 Tigers, who avenged their only loss by beating the Irish 34-10 in the ACC title game, play Ohio State in this season’s other semifinal Friday night at the Sugar Bowl.
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 38- 0 over Michigan State five seasons ago on the way to a national championship. They won another title, their fifth overall under coach Nick Saban, three seasons ago.
Sugar Bowl
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 playoff for the third time on Friday night, with the winner moving on to the national championship game against either No. 1 Alabama or No.
4 Notre Dame on Jan. 11 in suburban Miami.
Clemson has won both the previous CFP meetings with Ohio State. Throw in an Orange Bowl with 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.
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.
Fields was a Heisman finalist last year and followed that up with a mostly excellent performance in the playoff. In the first game he and Lawrence ever played against each other, Fields passed 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 the officials that went the Tigers way.