Tigers ready for Orange Bowl

Two days before the national semifinal game, Swinney suspended three players for violating team rules, including speedy receiver Deon Cain, one of the team’s best deep threats. “I’m going to be back”. Bring your own guts isn’t just a catchphrase for Dabo Swinney. New blood vs. blue blood. Unless you were of course fans of the winning teams. Lawson said. “It’s not true”.

But Clemson’s defense was the star of the Tigers’ 37-17 win, holding the Sooners to 67 yards rushing, a mere 28% of their usual output for a game.

“They were talking junk all week”, Lawson said.

His defensive mates did just fine without him. At the luncheon we saw them at the elevator and he’s there talking the whole time. “We really understand that it all starts in the trenches, no matter who we’re playing, no matter where we’re playing”.

“This isn’t the Russell Athletic Bowl, this is the Capitol One Orange Bowl…”

The teams developed a little bad blood leading up to the game, culminating in a fracas at the Orange Bowl luncheon on Wednesday.

However, the Tigers lost defensive end Shaq Lawson, a finalist for the Lombardi and Nagurski awards, who sustained a left knee injury in the first half and did not return. “Austin did so well” he said.

“He tried to go back in”, Swinney said after the game. Will they have that same success against a ‘Bama team that relied so much on a running game all year, but were forced to throw the ball more against Michigan State?

How else could you explain the decision to not only run a fake punt early in the second quarter, with the Tigers already trailing 7-3, but to have your punter throw a pass…to your 300-pound defensive tackle. “It’s another thing to have a talented group of guys who care about each other and want to serve each other and will let you coach them, and these guys are fantastic”, Swinney continued.

“I think it’s just the “take one game at a time” mentality, every game’s the biggest game”, he said. Sooners center Ty Darlington said afterward that “it wasn’t about them pushing us around”, but it sure looked like it.

Mayfield wasn’t the only Sooner undone by the Tigers’ muscle. Clemson hasn’t won a national title since 1981.

As a sophomore last season, Bosa had 13.5 sacks and 55 total tackles as the Buckeyes won the College Football Playoff.

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 Spartans played a similar style as Alabama, but a less polished version. Oklahoma went to the locker room with a 17-16 lead after Mark Andrews hauled in an 11-yard touchdown pass from Baker Mayfield with 1:34 remaining, and the Sooners defense came up with an interception in the end zone on an ill-advised throw by Watson into triple-coverage.

New Year’s Eve isn’t just a day of looking back on the past year or forward to the next one. For this Tiger team, a championship run was always going to be about the defense.

He added on the three wins that ended the Tigers’ 2014-2015 season. On defense the Sooners will lose a couple of key players in Eric Striker and Charles Tapper – and possibly Dominique Alexander if he decides to leave – but all in all, this team will enter 2016 as the favorite in the Big 12. They cheered, but the celebration felt muted and restrained. Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban will get a shot at his fifth national title, which would tie him with Bryant as the only coach in major college history to win five.