Ohio State vs. Clemson, Fiesta Bowl Playoff semifinal 2016: Tigers blow out Buckeyes to set up Alabama rematch

Clemson gave Ohio State a thrashing in the Fiesta Bowl semifinal of last year’s College Football Playoff. The Tigers’ 31-0 win on New Year’s Eve, which precluded their last-second title game win against Alabama, was as dominant as the score indicates.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney did an interview with South Carolina radio station WCCP on Monday, and he drew a line from the teams’ conferences to that result. Swinney thinks being in the ACC prepared the Tigers for their Playoff run.

During his team’s Fiesta Bowl victory on Saturday, Clemson defensive lineman Christian Wilkins grabbed somewhere he probably wasn’t supposed to grab.

In the game’s second quarter, Ohio State H-back Curtis Samuel found himself wrapped up between a trio of Clemson defenders. The play was long over, but Wilkins (No. 42 in orange) did some digging with his right hand.

Ohio State’s season ended in gory fashion on Saturday night. The Buckeyes got shut out in a Fiesta Bowl Playoff semifinal against Clemson, and it was one of the program’s (and Urban Meyer’s) worst losses in years. Nothing about it was fun for the Buckeyes.

But here’s the annoying thing, if you’re a fan of Michigan, Penn State, or any other team sharing the Big Ten with Urban Meyer’s Buckeyes: They’re likely only going to get better, despite what just happened to them.

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Allow Clemson defensive tackle Carlos Watkins to (inadvertently) explain the motivational techniques of Alabama head coach Nick Saban.

Do you feel like your defense gets enough attention nationally?

Clemson put a world-class hurting on Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, punching a National Championship ticket and eliminating the Buckeyes.

Some people are fans of the Ohio State Buckeyes, including a handful of our colleagues and friends here at SB Nation. If you’re not a fan of Ohio State and you have a Twitter account, you’re maybe looking right now for ways to joke about this football game.

In what was expected to be the less lopsided of two semifinal College Football Playoff games, the Fiesta Bowl between Ohio State and Clemson ended with a Tigers 31-0 blowout victory that was over early in the third quarter. The game was so lopsided, in fact, that odds for the College Football National Championship game came out before the Fiesta Bowl even ended. And, surprise surprise, Alabama is the early favorite over Clemson.

Bama took care of business and beat the Washington Huskies 24-7 earlier on Saturday in the Peach Bowl. Yes, Alabama has been incredibly dominant literally all season long, but this number is just a tiny bit surprising given the result of the Fiesta Bowl. Ohio State entered Saturday as a three-point favorite over Clemson, and the Tigers ended up winning by 31 points.

Ohio State was down 17-0 to Clemson at halftime of the Fiesta Bowl, and a former star Buckeye is not happy about it. Throughout the first half of the game, former OSU quarterback Cardale Jones got increasingly frustrated with the Buckeyes’ play calling.

It started like this:

The College Football Playoff kicks off New Year’s Eve at 3 p.m. ET, when No. 1 Alabama meets No. 4 Washington in the Peach Bowl. That’s followed by the Fiesta Bowl at 7 p.m. ET between No. 2 Clemson and No. 3 Ohio State. The winners meet Jan. 9 in Tampa for it all.

Who’s favored? Bama. That’s the short answer. For a longer answer, let’s look at media picks and analytics as one big group.

This year’s Fiesta Bowl semifinal Playoff game between Clemson and Ohio State looks as though it’s the best semifinal matchup of the two, at least on paper. On virtually every side of the ball, both teams have some talented playmakers, which should make for a great game. There are several intriguing matchups to look at during this game.

Both OSU’s J.T. Barrett and Clemson’s Deshaun Watson have talented arms but can make plays on the run, too. Buckeyes running back Mike Weber is a good complement to Barrett, as is Clemson’s Wayne Gallman. Oh, and both defenses rank inside the top 10, according to S&P+, in case you were worried this game wasn’t going to be evenly matched across the board.

The College Football Playoff’s two semifinal games are set for New Year’s Day for the second year in a row, albeit an hour each earlier than last year. The two early games also start nice and early, meaning a full day of important football that still leaves time to go outside at some point.

All four games are available for online streaming at WatchESPN and either on ABC or ESPN. The full schedule is below.

The College Football Playoff is 3 years old, which is apparently old enough to get some rematches going. If Alabama beats Washington, it’ll either face the team it beat in 2015’s Playoff or the team it lost to in 2014’s. Clemson and Ohio State have also met in a big bowl recently, while nobody has any particular grudge with Washington that I know of.

So let’s rank the mini-tournament’s six potential matchups by animosity, along with S&P+ projections to determine likelihood.

When the BCS was finally replaced with the Playoff, all our problems were solved and gone forever. Never again would a bunch of stuff go into a mysterious room, mix together in some way, and then walk out with a ranking, which would be used to match up college football’s biggest bowls.

Now we have a far superior system. Now a bunch of stuff goes into a mysterious room, mixes together in some way, and then walks out with a ranking, which is used to match up college football’s biggest bowls.