The Orange Bowl is not the bowl game anyone hoped for a few days ago. Instead of competing in the title game, Ohio State is in a big-time bowl against an opponent with whom the Buckeyes have history. Quelle horreur.
As a person with family ties to Clemson athletics1, I'm excited to see Ohio State play Clemson in the Orange Bowl.
The Orange Bowl is also about leaving a legacy. Ohio State will finish with ten BCS appearances in sixteen years, more than anyone, and will be the only team besides Oklahoma to compete in the Rose, Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, and National Championship Game.
There will be no sulking. This is the last chance to leave an mark on the era, and the Buckeyes need to make this count.
RESPECTING THE OPPONENT. In 2006, Urban Meyer could not understand how Florida lost top recruit CJ Spiller to Clemson. Defensive coordinator Charlie Strong, now head coach at Louisville, suggested he take a visit to understand.
For a school derisively called "Auburn with a lake", Clemson has a way of growing on you. The Clemson Insider wrote about Urban Meyer's connection to the school after taking a visit. Lo and behold:
Meyer finally understood what Strong was talking about when he visited Clemson in the fall of 2011 as part of the ESPN broadcast team that called the Tigers’ victories against Auburn and North Carolina. Working as analyst after leaving Florida following the 2010 season, Meyer was overly impressed with Clemson’s facilities, traditions, Howard’s Rock, the Hill and the rest of its game day atmosphere.
“I said on the air that was the first time I got to witness a game in Death Valley, and I was really impressed,” said Meyer. “That was the first time, too, that I got to see that offense.”
Meyer had praise for Clemson's athletic receiving corps and Tajh Boyd's scrambling and throwing ability. The respect is mutual:
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney told Meyer before they got off their conference call with the media Sunday night that he looked forward to seeing him down in Miami this coming Wednesday’s press conference and hanging out with him.
“They are just a couple of plays away from playing for a national championship,” Swinney said. “I have all the respect in the world for Coach Meyer. I look forward to spending some time with him down in Miami.”
Another note from the article: when Meyer took the Ohio State job in 2011, he first tried to hire Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris. Morris turned him down leading Meyer to hire Tom Herman instead. That has worked out for everyone involved.
ROSS LEADS OSU UP THE POLLS. After another week of undefeated play, Ohio State basketball has reached its highest ranking of the season.
The Buckeyes are third in the latest AP Poll and second in the Coaches Poll. With No. 4 Wisconsin and No. 5 Michigan State, the Big Ten has three of the top five for the first time since Week 4 of the 2012-2013 season. Iowa is No. 23 in the AP Poll and Michigan is No. 25 in the Coaches Poll.
More important for OSU is LaQuinton Ross's emergence from a slump, earning Big Ten Player of the Week honors for the first time in his career. Against Maryland and Central Connecticut State, Ross shot 61% from the field to raise his season averages to 36% and 11.5 points per game.
In Ross's honor, the athletic department put out the following graphic in which Ross is literally on fire:
Hopefully the makers of NBA Jam won't sue.
HEISMAN FINALISTS ANNOUNCED. Since announcing only one player to New York is a bit anticlimactic, the Heisman Trust went the other way by sending six players to New York for Saturday's Heisman announcement.
Jameis Winston, quarterback for Florida State, is the overwhelming favorite for the award. The bridesmaids other finalists are Jordan Lynch (Northern Illinois) Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M), AJ McCarron (Alabama), Tre Mason (Auburn), and Andre Williams (Boston College).
The candidacies of Braxton Miller and Carlos Hyde were undoubtedly hurt by Ohio State's loss in the Big Ten Championship Game. They also may have hurt each other by splitting votes; as Ohio State's leading rusher in 2012, Miller finished fifth in the voting.
Winston was a shoo-in for the trophy before the announcement, so there are no unreasonable hopes on anyone else's behalf. Should Miller returns for his senior season, he'll be one of the 2014 favorites.
Vols + checkerboard = creative haircut. Embiggen here. FOOTBALL ASSISTANTS IN DEMAND. When Jim Grobe resigned from Wake Forest last week, odds were that a mid-major coach would jump at the hire. That's just what happened when Wake Forest announced the hiring of Dave Clawson, who just led Bowling Green to the MAC championship.
Several mid-major jobs are open now, and that means Ohio State assistants are hot names. Tom Herman, Luke Fickell, Everett Withers, Stan Drayton, and Kerry Coombs have all been rumored for some job or another, with Drayton being seen as the favorite for the Florida Atlantic job. Can Ohio State hold onto its assistants?
SEC SPEEDING. In 2013, South Carolina's Jadaveon Clowney had trouble getting back to full speed on the field. He had no such trouble off the field:
According to WIS-TV in Columbia, S.C., Clowney was pulled over Saturday night by the South Carolina Highway Patrol and cited for doing 110 mph in a 70 mph zone in his Chrysler 300.
Now Clowney is $355 poorer and has a red flag on him for the NFL draft. Were he allowed, Clowney should have turned pro after decapitating Vincent Smith in the 2013 Capital One Bowl, right in the middle of the game.
LINKS AHOY. Jack Mewhort will play in the Senior Bowl... This year's Big Ten bowl swag... MSU students raise thousands for man whose car was totaled from riots... A disparity in graduation rates between white and black players on bowl teams... Preseason rankings put OSU lacrosse in the top ten for the first time ever... Any thoughts about Minnesota's white bowl helmet?... Rutgers football is melting down... Florida State faces the entire SEC in the title game... Homeless man thinks the Detroit Lions are sorry... Maybe Michigan shouldn't brag about it's [sic] academic ranking... Ron Zook IS a polar bear... and Nick Saban IS The Corinthian.
- 1Great-great-uncle counts, right?
