2014 Orange Bowl: Clemson outlasts Ohio State, 40-35

Cotton Bowl wins for Missouri in the last seven seasons. The Tigers currently hold a strange distinction: they are the at this moment the last SEC team to win the Cotton Bowl and the last Big 12 team to win the Cotton Bowl (in 2007). But an even odder tidbit is this: Mizzou’s passing game, perhaps the most noteworthy aspect for both of those teams, stunk in each Cotton Bowl.

In the 2008 Cotton Bowl, a 38-7 win over Arkansas, quarterback Chase Daniel completed just 12 of 29 passes for 136 yards, an interception, and a sack. But Tony Temple rushed for a Cotton Bowl record 281 yards, and the Mizzou defense not only held Arkansas to 4.3 yards per play but also scored a touchdown of its own (a 26-yard pick-six by William Moore).

Ohio State lost to Clemson in the Orange Bowl. Could it have been because Urban Meyer didn’t have enough space to draw up a proper gameplan due to a gaping hole in his whiteboard?

How are you supposed to prepare your team with so little space to write? Or was the hole part of the plan? It looks like a map of New York with the Finger Lakes district removed. Or like a weird lawn sprinkler. Or like an armless, headless, footless person running a race. That last one makes the most sense vis a vis Ohio State’s late-game performance against Clemson. “Armless, headless, footless person running a race” was a dumb gameplan.

Clemson moved up the field slowly at the start of their first drive, but Boyd took the ball up the middle for 49 yards, speeding past the Ohio State defense to take the 7-0 lead.

The Tigers came right back at them; Boyd capped a long drive with a play-action rollout, heaving the ball towards Watkins in the end zone. The junior leapt above the Ohio State defender, hauling in the catch and cutting the Buckeyes’ lead to 29-27.

Urban Meyer’s so mad he’s GOBBLING SLICES OUT OF THE AIR:

This isn’t sad pizza. Not anymore.

Jason Kirk [12:45 AM]:

ajkst1 [12:39 AM]:

Rankings and records: Clemson comes in at 10-2 (7-1 ACC), ranked 12th in the AP Poll and 11th in the Coaches’ Poll. Ohio State is 12-1 (8-1 Big Ten), ranked seventh in the AP Poll and sixth in the Coaches’ Poll.

Vegas: Ohio State opened as a four-point favorite. The over/under opened at 67.5.

You’re dead now, BCS, so this entire conversation is a little strange and one-sided. You can’t answer for a lot of things you could be accused of creating.

But that’s how eulogies work. As you were in your brief existence, they are unfair by design.

Orange Bowl betting has an ‘UNDER’ theme in 2014. Six of the past seven editions of this game have gone UNDER the totals. Underdogs have covered the spread in seven of 10 Sugar Bowls, as well.

The teams love the UNDER, as well. Six of the past eight Ohio State bowl games have played UNDER, and the UNDER is 8-3 in the past 11 games when Clemson is an underdog (they are getting 2.5 points on the Orange Bowl betting odds menu at OddsShark.com as of late December).

Clemson and Ohio State play in this year’s Orange Bowl -- two teams that normally would not have any sort of linking connection or rivalry, but this year there’s a player that connects the two.

Boyd was asked about the decision and his thought process heading into the game against Ohio State, and said he had no regrets or ill feelings.

One of the marquee matchups in the BCS slate will see two dynamic offenses face off against each other, with Ohio State playing Clemson in the Orange Bowl.

When first hearing about the matchup, Shakin’ the Southland noted Clemson’s opportunity to prove themselves against a marquee opponent:

Also, our Syracuse site is trying to raise money to send 1,000 kids to the game. Pitch in!

Michigan started the season 4-0, with tight wins over suspect opponents like Akron and Connecticut balancing out a win over a ranked Notre Dame. A four-overtime loss to Penn State ruined the team’s perfect record, and Michigan would end up losing to Michigan State, Nebraska, Iowa and Ohio State. The Wolverines will hope to get more consistent play on both sides of the ball against Kansas State.

The ACC had 11 bowl-eligible teams this season, with Pitt tying for both the worst overall record (6-6, with North Carolina and Syracuse) and conference record (3-5, with Maryland) among them. The Panthers did beat three other bowl teams this season, with an early-year win over Duke and late-season victories over Notre Dame and Syracuse.

Ralph Friedgen’s final game as Maryland’s head coach came in the 2010 Military Bowl -- the game was also the Terrapins’ last bowl game. Athletic director Kevin Anderson made the change from Friedgen to Randy Edsall, saying he wanted the program to go from “good to great,” and three years later, the Terps get to go to the same place.

The important thing to do when confronted by a set of 35 things is to rank them. Whether those 35 things are rankable things or events that have not happened yet, they must be ranked.

So we’ve polled 11 football fans on this year’s college football bowl schedule, with each giving a 1-to-10 rating on all 35 games. The full results are below, but first, some recognition for some of this year’s noteworthy matchups.

The Orange Bowl is one of college football’s greatest traditions. This year’s game will mark the final time it’s played as a BCS bowl with the College Football Playoff set to take over in 2015.

For ACC schools that have been invited to the game for years, it’ll be tough to see the Orange Bowl go away from its roots a bit. At the same time, most are really excited to see how the playoff will play out and there’s no question it will revolutionize postseason play in college football. Here’s hoping we can go out with a bang in 2014.

INDIANAPOLIS -- It was repeated enough to seem like it was the usual, pre-installed coach speak.

Elaboration will surely follow in the coming days, but before Ohio State could process their elimination from perfection and a national title, the stunning result of Saturday just... sucked.

There may be no experience in all of sports like watching Michigan State squeeze the life out of an offensive powerhouse like Ohio State. The Spartans defied the narrative Saturday afternoon, falling behind to the Buckeyes before coming back to win a dramatic Big Ten Championship game, 34-24, in Indianapolis.

Miller and Ohio State continued their strong offensive play in the third quarter, as Miller capped off a good drive with his eight-yard touchdown run, tying the game at 17-17 and putting the quarterback at over 100 yards on the ground.