TV ratings for College Football Playoff down 36 percent

One young player in particular who stepped up was freshman defensive end Austin Bryant. And now the other schools know why.

Clemson (14-0) outscored Oklahoma 21-0 in the second half to advance to the national title game on January 11 in Glendale, Ariz.

Alabama fans are the first to admit that they’re entitled.

Earlier in the day Thursday, Lawson made headlines for a different reason, when Dusty Dvoracek and Carey Murdock of WWLS-FM reported that Lawson went onto Oklahoma’s team bus after an event Wednesday and talked trash to the Sooners’ entire team.

“Going 15-0, it would mean we’re the best ever”, linebacker Travis Blanks said.

They need a new definition for “Clemsoning” now, a description that has nothing to do with choking, stumbling against lesser opponents or stepping on rakes. No team has played better against tougher competition than Alabama since its loss to Ole Miss.

Coker completed 25-of-30 passes for 286 yards. Their defense came into this game as one of the nation’s best and was somehow even better than that.

Even if Alabama wins, things have changed a bit.

Although Clemson is ranked first for the time being, Alabama is going to prove it deserves that gaudy status.

Clemson football spent the night in Miami and expects to be home around 5 p.m. today, but let’s take a look at some of the updates that developed from last night and this morning, as well as some highlights from yesterday’s Orange Bowl.

Swinney, whose top-ranked, undefeated team routed Oklahoma in a national semi-final in Miami Gardens on Thursday, said that was easy to answer. “This year we wanted to sort of take the game”.

For Oklahoma, it was a disappointing end to a comeback season. It’s more of a front 11 or 12 with how many linemen the Tide are able to rotate in the game at any given time. He showed tremendous improvement from his days at Texas Tech, especially in taking care of the ball while also still delivering big plays. The Spartans punted five straight times to start the game, and they only broke that streak when Jones, the Alabama defensive back, picked off Connor Cook at the 1-yard line, stomping on Michigan State’s most promising drive yet.

Defensively, the Tigers had five sacks and two interceptions vs. Oklahoma. That was it: 13 drives and nothing on the scoreboard to show for them. The Big Ten won a national title past year thanks to Ohio State, and it dominated the College Football Playoff rankings at the end of the regular season. On Thursday, they completely bottled up Michigan State’s offense, keeping them off the scoreboard entirely and allowing just 239 yards.

They will have to continue to take chances against an Alabama team that will not beat itself-they will have to remain loose off the field, nimble with their play calling and bold with their game plan. The player you saw against Michigan State is who he is, and who he can continue to be. Load up to stop the Alabama ground game – and MSU did that relatively well – but Coker came through. The alternative wasn’t any prettier. Six Clemson receivers caught 17 passes for 218 yards and a touchdown.

Deshaun Watson turned in another stellar two-way performance, running for one touchdown, passing for another and accounting for 332 yards to lead top-ranked Clemson to a 37-17 victory over Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl on Thursday.

And so it was fitting that it was a play that made you question a coach’s sanity that propelled the team to the championship game: in the most important game of his coaching career-a national championship invite on the line, his team at the OU 44 facing fourth-and-four-coach Dabo Swinney called for a fake punt that would have punter Andy Teasdall (the dude who incredulously called his own fake punt in the ACC championship game) throw the ball to the 322-pound Wilkins.