Two of the hottest teams in college football will kick off the College Football Playoff on Dec. 31 when No.1 Clemson and No. 4 Oklahoma face off in the Orange Bowl. The Tigers are the country’s last undefeated program after ripping through the ACC and ranked opponents like No. 8 Notre Dame, No. 9 Florida State and No. 10 North Carolina. The Sooners can’t match that perfect record thanks to an early-season 24-17 loss to 5-7 Texas, but wins over No. 11 TCU, No. 16 Oklahoma State and No. 17 Baylor have validated their late run to football’s final four.
2015 Orange Bowl semifinal picks and odds: Clemson and Oklahoma fight fire with fire
Two of the country’s hottest quarterbacks will clash in the Orange Bowl when Clemson’s Deshaun Watson and Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield meet.
Joshua S. Kelly-USA TODAY Sports
ESPN and oddsmakers, via OddsShark, like the Sooners, but neither by more than four points. The prediction swung in the opposite direction on SB Nation’s panel of writers. Seven of our 10 featured writers picked the Tigers to advance to the National Championship Game.
| Matt Brown | Bill Connelly | Wescott Eberts | Bud Elliott | Steven Godfrey | Spencer Hall |
| Oklahoma | Clemson | Oklahoma | Clemson | Clemson | Clemson |
| Jason Kirk | Rodger Sherman | Pete Volk | Luke Zimmermann | Easy Call | OddsShark |
| Clemson | Clemson | Oklahoma | Clemson | Oklahoma | Clemson |
Clemson is led by Heisman finalist Deshaun Watson, who has been peerless at quarterback in 2015. He threw for over 3,500 yards and 30 touchdowns while adding another 11 rushing touchdowns this season. Even when Notre Dame held him to fewer than 180 total yards, he still managed to find the end zone three times.
While the Tigers trotted out the nation's 10th-ranked offense this fall, their defense was even better, settling in at sixth in the S&P+ ratings. thanks to a strong push on the defensive line and the secondary performances of play-stoppers like Mackensie Alexander and Jayron Kearse.
Oklahoma has been nearly as good, the No. 3 to Clemson's No. 2 in the S&P+ (Alabama is No. 1). The Sooners made some major changes to qualify for the Playoff this season, and those differences led to a crimson and cream revival in 2015. Quarterback Baker Mayfield blew up in his premiere season with the Sooners, thriving under new offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley to throw for 35 touchdowns and nearly 3,400 yards in one fewer game than Watson had.
His wizardry behind center led OU to the nation's third-ranked scoring offense, but he wasn't alone. Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon gave this team a potent running game after combining for more than 2,000 yards and 22 touchdowns this fall. Their defense, which rates out at No. 12 in the country, is officially "not bad" as well.
Easy Call's Dan Rubenstein thinks that OU's ground game will be the difference in a close game between two high powered offenses.
The key is going to be Oklahoma’s running game. That’s where they have a big advantage, as good as Wayne Gallman is for Clemson, I think Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon combine to be a really, really great force for Baker Mayfield. So I’m going Sooners here. They’re closer to home, let’s call it 34-28 Sooners.
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