Ohio State hopes it has answers for painful Clemson questions
Favored Buckeyes were embarrassed by Tigers in 2016 CFP semifinal.
When Ohio State and Clemson took the field at the Fiesta Bowl in a College Football Playoff semifinal on Jan. 31, 2016, Clemson was the No. 2 seed, but the No. 3 seed Buckeyes were a 1-point favorite. By kickoff, No. 1 seed Alabama had dominated its semifinal, so the Ohio State-Clemson battle was for another shot at the
Tide and the clear role as the primary challenger to Nick Saban’s Tuscaloosa machine.
Back then, Clemson was still behind Ohio State in that race.
■ The Buckeyes were just two seasons removed from a national championship, while Clemson hadn’t won a championship in 34 years.
■ Ohio State had beaten Alabama two years earlier in the first playoff, while Clemson had lost to the Tide the year before in the championship game.
■ Urban Meyer was a threetime national championship coach who was 37-3 in the last three seasons. Dabo Swinney had three ACC titles but no championships and was 36-5 over the last three years.
Then that game happened. Clemson won 31-0 and hasn’t looked back. Ohio State was shut out and had to reevaluate.
The Buckeyes should give the Tigers a tougher test in their next showdown, back in a Fiesta Bowl semifinal on Dec. 28, only because the Buckeyes have changed.
“Oh, that was painful,” OSU athletic director Gene Smith remembered. “I think that game showed we needed to elevate our game in recruiting. The Clemson loss showed we needed to change our perspective and look at different positions differently, so we’ve done that.”
The Buckeyes were already well on the way toward wrapping up the nation’s No. 2 recruiting class in 2017 before the loss. But when Smith said the Buckeyes knew they needed to look at different positions in a different way, quarterback is one position where that’s clear.
“We’ve changed a lot since that time,” Smith said.
The changes are why Ohio State is in a far better position to compete with the Tigers. But Clemson is also a different program, one that has been on a steady climb since 31-0.
After beating the Buckeyes, Clemson defeated Alabama to win the title. In 2017, the Tigers were the No. 1 playoff seed, but lost the semifinal to Alabama. In 2018, the undefeated Tigers won the national title again. Now, they’re in the playoff for the fifth straight season and on a 28-game winning streak.
Meanwhile, Ohio State is back in the playoff for the first time since 31-0. Some lessons have been learned.
Here’s what Clemson did to move past the Buckeyes in the last three years, and how Ohio State is trying to catch up.
1. Elite quarterback play
Clemson’s Deshaun Watson is one of the transformational players of the modern era. He never won the Heisman Trophy, but he finished third in 2015 and second in 2016. He changed Clemson football.
When the Tigers beat Ohio State in the Orange Bowl at the end of the 2013 season, fifth-year senior Tajh
Boyd finished his career as a tough, successful, versatile quarterback known as a leader and winner. But Watson took Clemson to a new level. He accounted for 316 yards of offense against an NFL-level OSU secondary. Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett put up a total of 125 yards.
It’s Watson who pushed Clemson to these heights, and by following him with Trevor Lawrence, the Tigers have kept the country’s most dangerous offense rolling.
Ohio State’s answer: Barrett is Ohio State’s version of Boyd. Justin Fields could be OSU’s version of Watson. Having a more dynamic QB for the rematch is the biggest change, and with what Fields might do in 2020, Ohio State may be able to maintain this level of offense with its own version of Lawrence to follow. Dwayne Haskins was fantastic, but he started for a single season. Two years of Fields could reset the program’s quarterback paradigm.
2. Offensive ingenuity
When Ohio State and Clemson faced off in 2013, both teams featured rising offensive minds in coordinators Tom Herman and Chad Morris. Both left for head coaching jobs after 2014. But Clemson was able to replace Morris effectively, while Ohio State struggled without Herman for two years.
Clemson promoted Jeff Scott and Tony Elliott as co-coordinators and didn’t miss a beat. Ohio State promoted Ed Warinner and hired Tim Beck and fell apart. That 31-0 reflected the difference between the Scott/ Elliott combo and Warinner/ Beck as much as anything.
Ohio State’s answer: Meyer saw that too, and hired Ryan Day as coordinator a week after that loss. That freshening of the offense was a critical component, and now Day is in charge and still running that offense. Meanwhile, Scott has been hired as the new coach at South Florida but is sticking around for this game. But Swinney will need to find a new co-leader next season.
3. Defensive stability
Defensive coordinator Brent Venables is a centerpiece of Clemson’s success. In his role for eight years, he’s one of the best assistants in the country and has turned down numerous opportunities to leave. Meanwhile, Ohio State since 2012 has moved through eight co-coordinators on defense and now has to replace another in the departing Jeff Hafley.
Ohio State’s answer: There isn’t one. Venables is a rare luxury for a program like Clemson. Most top teams lose top coordinators. But if Ohio State can lure back former assistant Kerry Coombs from the NFL, maybe he can bring continuity to a unit that did play at a very high level under Hafley and Greg Mattison this season.
4. Lousy conference
Clemson has feasted on an ACC with no chance of keeping up, while Ohio State has maneuvered through a Big Ten that puts up much more resistance. The losses to Iowa and Purdue that kept Ohio State from the playoff in 2017 and 2018 — the midtier teams in the ACC haven’t challenged Clemson the same way.
In the last three seasons, seven ACC teams besides Clemson finished in the final AP top 25 rankings. They were ranked 13th, 15th, 16th, 20th, 21st, 23rd and 24th.
In the last three seasons, 11 Big Ten teams besides Ohio State finished in the top 25: They were seventh (twice), eighth, ninth, 10th, 14th, 15th, 17th (twice), 21st and 25th. This season, besides Ohio State, the Big Ten has teams ranked eighth, 10th, 14th, 16th and 18th in the latest CFP rankings.
The ACC has a team ranked 24th.
Ohio State’s solution: The Buckeyes made it through a tougher conference without tripping up this season, motivated by the way Iowa and Purdue kept them from their goals the last two years.
Hoping that the Big Ten would provide as little resistance as the ACC wouldn’t be much of a solution. But in the pursuit of the playoff, and the fight for national standing, Clemson sure has taken advantage of it.