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Ohio State blows out Indiana, 38-15. Now, it's time to do the same to That Team Up North.
When Urban Meyer learned his team received a bid to the College Football Playoff, he stood a few feet away from his daughter, Nicki, and newborn grandson, Troy. An emotional night that bled into a joyous morning, Ohio State's head football coach whipped out his iPhone.
“The amount of teams that were worthy of this—I just said, I'm going to send a text out to my players and staff right now that we receive this opportunity with incredible humility and class because I can name six, seven teams right now that are that quality of teams,” Meyer said on Sunday. “We're going to do the best we can to represent.”
Ohio State is the lone team in the 2016 Playoff that did not win its conference, yet the Buckeyes are ranked No. 3 and set to face No. 2 Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl. The winner gets a date in Tampa with either top-ranked Alabama or No. 4 Washington. All of that is second fiddle, however. The Buckeyes have a ton of work to do before they face the Tigers, one of the most talented teams in the country.
“I know their team very well because I know their coach. I know most of their coaches, too,” Meyer said. “Excellent staff, excellent head coach, and they're loaded.”
Dabo Swinney and the Tigers have won at least 10 games each of the last six seasons. They handed Meyer one of the five losses in his Ohio State tenure too, beating the Buckeyes 40-35 in the 2013 Orange Bowl. The teams are different now and the stage is much, much higher. Led by star quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate Deshaun Watson, Clemson's offense is among the nation's most explosive.
“The skill set on offense is over the top. They're all NFL players. They have one of the top, maybe the top or top two or three players in America in Deshaun Watson.”– Urban Meyer
“I think he has great composure. I think he's a very good quarterback,” Ohio State defensive end Tyquan Lewis said of Watson. “He can run on the ground, throw the ball, get it to his tight ends and things like that. That's what I just noticed from [Saturday] night.”
Watson scored five total touchdowns and racked up more than 350 total yards in his team's 42-35 victory over Virginia Tech in the ACC Championship Game. He is the straw that stirs the drink for the Tigers, a terrific player that Meyer once tried to recruit to Ohio State.
But Watson isn't the only player that worries Meyer.
“The skill set on offense is over the top. They're all NFL players. They have one of the top, maybe the top or top two or three players in America in Deshaun Watson,” Meyer said. “They go fast. They're creative on offense.”
Six players on Clemson's roster have at least 29 receptions this season and 10 have at least one touchdown grab. Watson sling the ball all over the field and have a powerful running back in Wayne Gallman, plus a defense that ranks second nationally in sacks with 46 and has 18 interceptions.
“I think they got one of the best defensive coordinators in the country,” Meyer said. “They're very multiple on defense, not just one defense.”
Meyer is familiar with Watson and star wide receiver Mike Williams. He said he plans to watch more tape Sunday evening and into the next week to familiarize himself with the personnel his young Ohio State team is set to face in the desert. But after seeing what he did on television at the hospital ward on Saturday, he feels confident to relate it to the top-ranked team in the country.
“I would imagine them and Alabama would be the No. 1 team as far as NFL prospects in the country right now,” Meyer said.
J.T. Barrett is great friends with Clemson's quarterback as well having met Watson earlier in his career and stayed close.
When Barrett sat alone in his apartment eating chicken wings and learned the Buckeyes and Tigers were set to face off in Phoenix, the Ohio State quarterback fired off a quick text to Watson.
“I said, 'I'll see you in Arizona, brother.' He said, 'All right, let's get it,'” Barrett said. “I think it's going to be exciting. We're both competitors, love our teams and we're going to fight to the end in order to get that victory.”
The Buckeyes are 11-1, the Tigers 12-1. They didn't get to the College Football Playoff by mistake. Both are excellent teams with terrific coaches and personnel. There is plenty of time between Sunday and New Year's Eve but Ohio State isn't blind to what allowed the Tigers to make their way to the Fiesta Bowl.
“We know them, have a lot of respect for them,” Meyer said. “We know exactly what we're getting into.”
