Ohio State needed absolutely zero motivation for its upcoming College Football Playoff matchup against Clemson, but Dabo Swinney seems surprisingly willing to provide just that for Ryan Day and the Buckeyes.
It was revealed last Monday that the Tigers' head coach slotted Ohio State at No. 11 on his personal ballot for the USA Today coaches poll, behind juggernauts such as three-loss Florida, three-loss Iowa State and Coastal Carolina, which is fresh off an FBC Mortgage Cure Bowl loss to // checks notes // college football powerhouse Liberty.
Over the weekend, Swinney doubled down on his Buckeye snub by arguing Ohio State didn't qualify for the playoff because they only played six games.
“In my opinion — Texas A&M, Florida, Oklahoma, Cincinnati — they got punished for playing more games," Swinney said on ESPN last Saturday.
"I don't think that it's right that three teams have to play 13 games to win it all and one team has to play eight,” he later added.
It was a significant departure from his opinion earlier in the year, when he said this of the Big Ten's shortened season.
Dabo on if he has problem w/ Big Ten in CFP despite less games: "Shoot, in a year like this, no. It's a crazy year. Who knows how many games anybody is going to have? You have some of the best teams & coaches in that league. It's not their fault. They've worked their butt off."
— Anna Hickey (@AnnaH247) September 16, 2020
What could have possibly changed in the three months between then and now?
There's certainly an argument to be made about the various playoff contenders' resumes, which is the case every year. But does Swinney truly believe that Texas A&M, which lost to Alabama by four touchdowns, deserved a rematch? Didn't that game prove the Aggies weren't deserving?
Apparently, he thinks a Florida team riding a two-game losing streak is also more qualified than Ohio State because at least they played more games, and also scoreboards do not matter.
The logic is faulty at best, and Swinney probably knows as much. Why he would give Ohio State such boisterous bulletin-board material is mind-boggling, but hey, you do you as the youngs would say.
This isn't the first time an upcoming opponent talked trash about the Buckeyes. Here's to hoping this latest slander turns as sweet as these other recent moments in Buckeye football history.
A Spoiled Promise and Revenge Tour
There's part of me that understands Michigan's confidence ahead of its matchup with Ohio State in 2018. The Wolverines boasted the country's top defense and had an offense that was arguably not bad.
On the other side of the field was an Ohio State team that had been drubbed by something called Purdue and was coming off a hilarious 52-51 overtime victory over Maryland.
It felt like the Wolverines' year. After an early and close setback to Notre Dame in Week 1, Michigan launched its "revenge tour" and got even with Michigan State, Penn State and Wisconsin teams that had defeated the Wolverines the year before.
All that was left to complete said tour was a victory over Ohio State, and the Wolverines were so confident that running back Karan Higdon guaranteed a victory over the Buckeyes to secure Michigan's first-ever appearance in the Big Ten title game.
The Result: A 62-39 demolition that will live in our hearts until the end of time.
Poking the Wrong Lion
A couple of months earlier, Penn State defensive end Shareef Miller decided it was a good idea to tell ESPN that Dwayne Haskins was not very good at football, actually.
"To slow him down, you just gotta hit him," Miller told ESPN. "A couple of guys on our team played with him, they told me if you hit him a lot of times he's gonna fold."
At the time, Haskins had played just four games as Ohio State's starting quarterback, and the third-year sophomore had already eclipsed 300 passing yards three times.
But Penn State's defenders weren't all that impressed and felt comfortable expressing that to a national audience.
The Result: Penn State had Ohio State boxed in for much of the night and led 26-14 midway through the fourth quarter. That's when Haskins took over, throwing for two touchdowns in as many drives in the final seven minutes of the game to seal a 27-26 win.
The Premature Party
This instance is on my personal Mount Rushmore of trash-talk-turned-sour, and yes, I realize that having a Mount Rushmore of trash-talk-turned-sour outs me as a fan of teams based in Ohio.
But at the end of the 2002 season, a plucky second-ranked Ohio State football team was set to go against a Miami dynasty in the national championship.
The Buckeyes were huge underdogs to a Hurricanes squad that came into the game riding a 34-game win streak and looking to secure their second consecutive national title.
Former Miami players were so confident the Hurricanes would win that they planned a celebratory party well before the game had kicked off. Ohio State caught wind of the premature celebration and used it as motivation.
The Result: One of the greatest title games in NCAA Football history, with Ohio State coming away with a 34-21 31-24 double-overtime victory.
There have certainly been other notable instances of undelivered trash talk in Ohio State's history (which we should discuss in the comments IMHO), but if the Buckeyes can come away with a victory over Clemson this Friday, Swinney's ranking will live in infamy.
