Ohio State Clobbers Clemson in Sugar Bowl Shocker

   The Ohio State Buckeyes entered the Sugar Bowl/National Semi-Final disrespected by the oddsmakers (seven-point underdogs), the general media, and even Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney entering their game in New Orleans.

However, most of that thinking was due to the lack of games that Ohio State played, how sharp Clemson has looked of late or otherwise the game would have been an even matchup.

What was received was the best game that Ohio State played all season and the return of the Justin Fields from the Buckeyes early-season games and that was good enough to extinguish the Clemson Tigers 49-28.

Justin Fields threw for 385 yards and a Sugar Bowl record six touchdowns, Trey Sermon rushed for 193 yards and a touchdown with Chris Olave and Jeremy Ruckert each caught two touchdown passes to lead Ohio State to a victory that some may have expected, but next to no one saw such a domination coming in New Orleans.

Ohio State will face Alabama on January 10th in Miami for the national championship.

All Photos courtesy of Getty Images.

Olentangy Offerings

1) Justin Fields suddenly became the confident passer from earlier in the season and other than one bad pass when he fluttered a ball to a double-covered receiver on the first drive of the second half, Fields had his best game on his biggest stage completing 22 of 28 and his incompletions were the same amount as his touchdowns.

2) Think about that. Justin Fields threw six touchdowns and six incompletions against the vaunted Brent Venables defense of Clemson. I'm not sure that Ohio State has had a quarterback have that kind of performance against a national power that I can remember-Fields was that good.

3) And consider that Fields played much of this game with injured and possibly broken ribs after a Fields run in the second quarter saw Fields speared in the ribs by Clemson linebacker James Skalski.

Skalski clearly lowered his helmet and was ejected for targeting.

Fields would play the remainder of the game in pain and yet continued to throw accurately and hung in the pocket in a display of toughness that NFL scouts should love.

4) Fields and Chris Olave were also noted by Ryan Day to have remembered all year for the miscommunication in last year's game between these two teams and the resolution to win this game was pretty clear with Fields hitting Olave with six catches for 132 yards and two touchdowns.

Olave returned to the lineup after missing the Big 10 title game against Northwestern after testing positive for Covid-19.

5) And the sudden transformation of Trey Sermon into the new Jim Brown continued as Sermon just missed 200 rushing yards and ran through the Tigers tacklers with an aggressiveness seldom seen in college football.

Sermon has now put together two of the best rushing games (considering the stakes) in Ohio State history and what could have lit his fire?

Perhaps someone got into his ear and whispered the difference between a day two pick in the NFL Draft and a day three selection?

6) What has made Trey Sermon so effective?

His balance when he breaks tackles.

Most backs will break a tackle and get an extra five or six yards, but Sermon (in the last two games) runs through a tackle and tacks on 10, 15, 20 yards and isn't afraid to put his hand on the ground to keep himself off the turf.

7) Garrett Wilson only caught two passes, but Wilson's 47-yard
reception was more than just a long gain, it was the beginning of Justin Fields showing that the Buckeyes were willing to take shots down the field to someone other than Chris Olave.

Wilson's day will come, perhaps against the Crimson Tide.

8) The Ohio State defense forced only one turnover, the end zone interception by Sevyn Banks near the end of the game, and they allowed Trevor Lawrence to throw for 400 yards.

However, they didn't allow Clemson to gain huge chunks of yardage in the passing game and made Lawrence accept what he was given.

The longest pass play that Clemson completed for 29 yards and Clemson would have only four plays over twenty yards.

9) The Clemson run game was turned off partially because of the Ohio State lead, but Travis Etienne wasn't running that well when the game was close.

Etienne finished with 32 yards on ten carries and while he did score a touchdown, Etienne's longest run was only for eight yards.

10) Ohio State seems to consistently recruit highly regarded receiving tight ends with the promise of the players involving the tight end more in the offense.

Jeremy Ruckert is an example of that and it was nice to see Ruckert and Luke Farrell combine for three of Justin Fields' six touchdown passes.

Ruckert is a player that may be a fairly high pick when he goes to the NFL and likely would be a larger part of most teams' offense but chose to come to Ohio State instead.

11) Ohio State set nine school records for bowl games in this one.

12) I'll wrap this on Clemson coach Dabo Swinney.

Swinney's vote of Ohio State at eleventh in the nation was dumb.

Any extra motivation that you can give to any team of talent is never a wise move, but Swinney's refusal to even try to soften the blow a bit is a special type of dumb.

When you add this to the several questionable statements that Swinney has uttered over the last year or two, it's no wonder how Swinney has become the most disliked coach in college football.

What I do wonder about is how Swinney's mouth could eventually affect recruiting.

Swinney is the main reason that a program like Clemson isn't well-liked after their rise to national prominence among the other traditional powers should have made them so.

Perhaps some of the Dabo act is beginning to wear thin.

Sugar is sweet as Ohio State stuns Alabama!

This is over a day late by the time that I finish this,but given the surprise,the significance and wanting to review the tape-better to have a good column to start 2015 than a rushed one as the Ohio State Buckeyes stunned the top ranked Alabama Crimson Tide 42-35 in New Orleans to win the Sugar Bowl!
Even more importantly,the Buckeyes advance to Dallas next week to meet the Oregon Ducks,who destroyed Florida State in the Rose Bowl for the National Championship!

Ezekiel Elliott rushed for 230 yards and two touchdowns with the final crushing blow,an 85 yard run for the eventual winning score,while Cardale Jones threw for 243 yards and a touchdown in the victory....

Olentangy Offerings

1) Once again,I apologize for being so late,but wow,watching at work and then coming home to break down tape,I just wasn't up for it.
What a thrilling game to watch and with apologies to Minnesota's Jerry Kill-all things considered,how could anyone give the Big 10 coach of the year to anyone other than Urban Meyer??

2) The Buckeyes had so many great plays in this one,but the 85 yard run up the middle by Ezekiel Elliott will be the one that stands the test of time.
It was Elliott that was the main difference in this victory....

3) When I left for work,Alabama had just moved their lead to 21-6.
Ohio State would score the next four touchdowns with two passing scores (one by Evan Spencer on a trick play),a Elliott run and an interception return,
When those things all click,it's a good night..

4) Speaking of the trick play,the Evan Spencer pass to Michael Thomas for the touchdown at the end of the first half was inspired.
Yes,Thomas did a tremendous job staying in bounds,but calling a play like that near the end of the half with time ticking down took some guts..

5) Wish that sanity had prevailed with under three minutes to go and with Alabama having two timeouts to not have thrown a deep incompletion on first down.\
Had the Buckeyes just run the ball,Bama would have never been able to make the last desperate drive as they would have far less time to do anything with the ball...

6) Cardale Jones looked a little rattled for the first quarter and a half,but began to get into rhythm and cadence a bit after that.
The one thing that I like about Jones that so many quarterbacks with far more experience do not do?
He recognizes when a play is not going to work out and throws the ball away.
A underrated trait that is going to help his development as a passer.

7) Alabama's MVP was punter JK Scott with five punts inside the 20.
If Alabama would have won this game,I would have voted Scott the defensive MVP/

8) Lane Kiffin has never been a favorite of ours,but we must give Lane credit for helping the Buckeyes to the win.
Wait,Lane coaches for Alabama? Oh well,that must be why the one thing that worked for Alabama was the running of Derrick Henry and Ohio State couldn't stop Henry at all.
Kiffin quit running Henry in the leader for puzzling decision of the day.

9) Give the defense credit as they picked off Blake Sims three times and sacked him three more.
I've been critical of Luke Fickell in the past,but his squad has progressively gotten better.
With three players that shape up as future award winner candidates and all-americans in Darron Lee,Joshua Perry and Vonn Bell even the defense as Urban Meyer said "The Future is bright at Ohio State"...

10) 10 of 18 on third down against Alabama?
I wouldn't have believed it before hand,but the third down conversions might have been the biggest offensive stat...

11) Had to feel good for Steve Miller and his interception for a touchdown.
Miller is overshadowed by Michael Bennett,Joey Bosa etc and it's always nice to see the steady but solid guy catch a break...

12) So it is onto Dallas and the waiting Oregon Ducks.
Lots of parallels between the offenses and the coaches-this shapes up as a fun game...

13) Liking the playoffs? Think of this-last year the BCS would have given you Alabama vs Florida State.....

Buckeyes fall in title game,LSU wins Sugar Bowl

The Ohio State Buckeyes scored the first ten points in their game at LSU.
However, they allowed the next 31 pts to be scored by the Tigers on the way to a 38-24 loss.
Other than the long early run by Chris Wells, the Buckeyes generally seemed to be a day and a dollar short on offense.
I don't want to get into the game details, but I would like to share some thoughts on things that should be looked at Jim Tressel and the staff to continue to upgrade the program and look at the current personnel.

Three things stood out to me as the difference between these two teams.

One-The Ohio State offensive line is not big enough or quick enough to handle top teams pass rush.
By this, I mean that the Buckeyes have some big, slower road paver types and a few undersized, finesse blocker types and neither type match up well with the larger, yet speedy pass rushers that seem to populate SEC football.
This needs to be addressed in recruiting and it cannot be fixed overnight, but needs to begin the process of changing the type of offensive linemen that are recruited by Ohio State.
The line has been very effective in Big Ten play, but has been overmatched in bowl play against a different type of team.

Two-The constant talk before the game was the "speed difference" between the two teams.
I really only saw one area that affected the game.
The OSU corners simply could not keep up with the LSU receivers and that too is a recruiting issue.
Ohio State needs to add more speed and athleticism to the secondary to better combat the smaller, speedier SEC pass catchers.
As with the offensive line, this will not be a quick fix, but subtle recruiting changes need to begin ASAP.

Three-Whether or not Ohio State lands the heralded freshman passer Terrelle Pryor or not (the Bucks are considered the favorite, but are far from a lock) Todd Boeckman needs to be at least challenged for the quarterback job by Pryor (if they land him) or Antonio Henton.
In the three biggest games of the season, Boeckman looked confused, overmatched and generally looked and played lost.
Boeckman seems like a very nice young man, but next year, when the Buckeyes will play USC (no more schedule complaints), OSU will need a mobile passer that can make plays.
Boeckman fails that test on both marks.
Jim Tressel is known for his loyalty to his players, but there needs to be competition at the minimum next season.
This was a disappointment for sure, but to achieve this much in what was supposed to be a reloading season made a great year.
Kudos to the Buckeyes and here is hoping for a great 2008.

Bullpen Notes

Later today, the baseball hall of fame announces the 2008 inductees.
As we wrote last week in the HOF ballot post, here is hoping that today is finally the day for Jim Rice.

A brief note from the sour grapes files.
All these southern football fans that revel in their spread option offenses etc that cannot be stopped etc should remember that every offense has its peak periods.
Ryan and I had this discussion last night and recalled the days of the "unstoppable" Wishbone in the '70s, Flexbone in the '80s, Run and shoot in the '80s and early '90s.
Every new offense has its heyday until the defense figures it out.
Sooner or later-that day always comes...

June Jones leaves Hawaii for SMU.
5 years and 10 million.
But this is not the typical blasting of a coach leaving while the getting is good.
Jones has an expired contract at Hawaii and is not breaking a deal to leave, plus he is going to a program with great new facilities and boosters that want to restore SMU to gridiron glory.
He had probably done all he could at Hawaii and if anyone gets blamed, it should be Hawaii.
They seemed to not even try very hard to retain Jones.....

A nice read from Yahoo on our favorite NBA player, former Xavier star David West.
West is a poster ad for staying in school for 4 years, getting your degree and improving your game for the next step by playing instead of sitting on the bench.

Another interesting interview comes from Australia with WWE champion Randy Orton.
Orton likely got himself into some political hot water in the company after expressing these views with an Aussie newspaper.

And finally, today is the New Hampshire primary.
Looks like Barack Obama and John McCain are favorites in their respective primary heats.

Photo Credit
Chris Russell-Columbus Dispatch