With considerably less fanfare and controversy than was encountered in its debut one season ago, the College Football Playoff committee revealed its selection of the four teams that will be battling for the 2016 National Championship. Any drama absent from the selection process will be more than made up for on the field, as this season’s semifinal games have championship storylines in and of themselves — a duel between Heisman hopefuls, a showdown between two of the country’s toughest defenses, a coach facing his friend and mentor on the other sideline, and above it all, one team in the hunt for perfection.
It probably came as a shock to no one when the Clemson Tigers — who had enjoyed their position at the top of the CFP rankings for the last five weeks — came in at the No. 1 spot after capturing the ACC title over the weekend. The Tigers are the only undefeated FBS team and will be hoping that Heisman-candidate quarterback Deshaun Watson will lead them to their first national title in 34 years.
To do this, Clemson will first have to head down to Miami and defeat fourth-ranked Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. The high-scoring champions out of the Big-12 Conference were on the outside looking in for much of the playoff conversation this season, with an embarrassing loss to 5-7 Texas and a lackluster schedule preventing the Sooners from entering the CFP top five until Week 13, but a seven-game winning streak, that included impressive victories over Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma State propelled OU into the playoffs.
The Sooners have their own Heisman-caliber quarterback in Baker Mayfield, who has been the key behind the team’s overpowering offense. Mayfield averages over 42 points per game, and Oklahoma is the third-best scoring offense in the nation. Expect this year’s Orange Bowl to be a fierce shootout between two high-scoring offenses, and don’t be surprised if tempers break out, especially given the bad blood from the teams’ most recent meeting in last season’s Russell Athletic Bowl, in which the Tigers obliterated Oklahoma, 40-6.
The other semifinal game will be the Cotton Bowl, which will feature No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Michigan State. Unlike the Clemson-Oklahoma matchup, this game will be sure to please the defensively-inclined college football fans, as it pits the second-ranked defense of the Crimson Tide against the 26th-ranked Spartans.
While the Tide have been at the No. 2 spot in the CFP rankings for the past four weeks, the Spartans were seemingly out of the playoff picture until they edged out undefeated Iowa with some late-game heroics to win the Big Ten Championship. The Spartans will likely have their front seven tested by Alabama’s Derrick Henry, the workhorse of the Crimson Tide offense and holder of the SEC’s single-season rushing record.
Alabama on the other hand, will have to contend with one of college football’s best quarterbacks, Connor Cook. Although the Tide have had some issues this season against teams that can pass the football well — giving up 228 and 341 passing yards to Wisconsin and Ole Miss, respectively — Cook admitted to having a hurt throwing shoulder in Saturday’s game, and if he isn’t 100 percent, the Michigan State offense will be fighting an uphill battle.
Perhaps the game’s most interesting matchup isn’t between two players on the field, however, but between the guys wearing the headsets. Spartan head coach Mike Dantonio worked under Alabama’s Nick Saban at Michigan State for five years as an assistant coach before Saban left for LSU. Dantonio describes him as a mentor and says that he’s borrowed ideas from Saban in order to incorporate strong defense and mental toughness into the team identity at Michigan State.
Whether Saban will continue his legacy by taking Alabama to its fourth national championship during his tenure or whether his apprentice Dantonio can create a legacy of his own by becoming the first Spartan coach to play for the national title in over fifty years, this season’s Cotton Bowl will be one for the history books.
@tylerfcrum