Penn State’s kicker had some extra Christmas fun with the Jumbotron at Jerry World. Jordan Stout showed off his target shooting, Tweeting a (now-deleted) video of him punting three footballs at the mega-sized video board that hangs over the field at AT&T Stadium. Stout tweeted “Sorry @dallascowboys I didn’t mean to hit your TV.. #MerryChristmas.” The Nittany Lions (10-2) take on the Memphis Tigers (12-1) in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Tex. Saturday.
Penn State’s kicker had some extra Christmas fun with the Jumbotron at Jerry World. Jordan Stout showed off his target shooting, Tweeting a (now-deleted) video of him punting three footballs at the mega-sized video board that hangs over the field at AT&T Stadium. Stout tweeted “Sorry @dallascowboys I didn’t mean to hit your TV.. #MerryChristmas.” The Nittany Lions (10-2) take on the Memphis Tigers (12-1) in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Tex. Saturday.
Throwing a pair of punches cost Eastern Michigan quarterback Mike Glass III the final snap of his college career. The heated moment might’ve also cost the team its first bowl win since 1987.
Throwing a pair of punches cost Eastern Michigan quarterback Mike Glass III the final snap of his college career. The heated moment might’ve also cost the team its first bowl win since 1987.
Whatever the Liberty Bowl player gift is this year is going to automatically be the second-best swag for the Navy Midshipmen, who Thursday shared pictures of their trip in the New England Patriots private plane.
Whatever the Liberty Bowl player gift is this year is going to automatically be the second-best swag for the Navy Midshipmen, who Thursday shared pictures of their trip in the New England Patriots private plane.
Head coach Ken Niamatalolo told USA Today earlier this month that he reached out to Pats head coach Bill Belichick last December to pick the mind of the NFL head coach on how to revamp the Midshipmen’s defense. Now the Pat’s stamp is on Navy’s season both on the field and in the sky.
Navy (10-2) faces Kansas State (8-4) on New Year’s Eve in Memphis, Tenn. Even if the matchup didn’t already favor the Naval Academy, the intimidation points that come with touching down for a bowl game with six Super Bowl trophies on the plane should give Navy an edge in the bowl game.
Whatever the Liberty Bowl player gift is this year is going to automatically be the second-best swag for the Navy Midshipmen, who Thursday shared pictures of their trip in the New England Patriots private plane.
Whatever the Liberty Bowl player gift is this year is going to automatically be the second-best swag for the Navy Midshipmen, who Thursday shared pictures of their trip in the New England Patriots private plane.
Whatever the Liberty Bowl player gift is this year is going to automatically be the second-best swag for the Navy Midshipmen, who Thursday shared pictures of their trip in the New England Patriots private plane.
Whatever the Liberty Bowl player gift is this year is going to automatically be the second-best swag for the Navy Midshipmen, who Thursday shared pictures of their trip in the New England Patriots private plane.
In terms of dueling hype videos, LSU definitely wins this one.
No. 1 LSU and No. 4 Oklahoma face off in the first College Football Playoff semifinal game Saturday, playing in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl for a shot at the national championship game in January. They also both released their hype videos for the game this week, and the Tigers won this matchup.
To be fair, LSU’s social media and production team has put together some fabulous videos throughout this season — remember its tribute to Joe Burrow on Senior Day? — but the Tigers’ hype video did a better job of setting the scene, building up the intensity and then hitting its stride with highlights of the team practicing for the playoff game.
Oklahoma’s wasn’t bad, but it lacked momentum and the positives from this hype video were canceled out with the narration, which is a bit out of place.
For the dueling hype videos, LSU’s video has run-through-a-wall vibes, while Oklahoma’s is more like a documentary trailer for a chronicle of the team this season.
Four days before the game, LSU is a 13.5-point favorite over the Sooners, who have three players (defensive lineman Ronnie Perkins, running back Rhamondre Stevenson and wide receiver Trejan Bridges) suspended for at least this game.
While Oklahoma has Heisman Trophy finalist Jalen Hurts, arguably the most dynamic quarterback of the season, leading the team, LSU has Heisman winner Joe Burrow, who’s 77.9 completion percentage is the best in the nation.
The Tigers and Sooners play in the Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday, while the second playoff game, the Fiesta Bowl, between No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Clemson follows at 8 p.m. ET at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
The Buckeyes quarterback might not be at full strength for the College Football Playoff semifinal.
There’s a chance Justin Fields won’t be at full strength when No. 2 Ohio State takes on No. 3 Clemson in the College Football Playoff semifinal game at the Fiesta Bowl on Saturday.
The Buckeyes quarterback sprained his MCL in Ohio State’s win over Penn State on November 23, and he then said he aggravated it in his team’s win against Michigan the following week. Fields played through the injury in the Big Ten championship game against Wisconsin, but he’s not where he hoped to be with the College Football Playoff semifinal game just days away.
“My knee’s probably not like I want it to be right now. But I think with treatment every day and just resting it every day, hopefully, it will be better by the game. …
“I definitely thought I would be closer to 100 percent. If I gave a percentage, I’d probably be at 80 or 85 right now. So yeah, but I’m just going to hope and pray I feel better by game day really.”
Justin Fields says his knee isn’t exactly as healthy as he wanted it to be at this point and he’ll wear a small brace on it. pic.twitter.com/OiycoVOAxd
Fields said he has a smaller knee brace that he plans to wear — it’s the same one he said he wore in the Michigan game — but added that he also has a larger one just “in case anything happens” in the playoff game.
Although he said he’s been participating in the team’s bowl game practices, his mobility is limited. He continued:
“I try to get as much reps as possible. Really, I would say I haven’t really missed any reps in terms of just getting in there and playing. But I just can’t really move like I want to.”
The Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, Fields has thrown for 40 touchdowns and just one interception so far this season, and in five games, he threw four touchdowns. He has a 67.5 completion percentage (No. 16 nationally) and has thrown for 2,953 yards (No. 26) while adding 471 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground.
Evaluating the Buckeyes, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney called the two teams are “literally mirror images” of each other. The Playstation Fiesta Bowl is Saturday at 8 p.m. ET in Glendale, Arizona.
LSU’s star quarterback was once recruited by the head coach he and the Tigers will play in the College Football Playoff.
Before Joe Burrow was LSU’s star quarterback, the 2019 Heisman Trophy winner or preparing to lead the No. 1 team in the College Football Playoff, he was a four-star recruit labeled the eighth best quarterback of the 2015 class. He received a lot of offers — Boston College, Minnesota, Kentucky, Iowa State and Cincinnati among them — and started his college career with Ohio State, the best team to recruit him.
But, as Burrow explained Tuesday during one of the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl press conferences, what he considers his first “real” offer came out of East Carolina after he was recruited by none other than Lincoln Riley, now Oklahoma’s head coach.
His dad, Jimmy Burrow, was the defensive coordinator at Ohio at the time, and the Bobcats were the first team to offer him a scholarship. So Burrow doesn’t really count that. And then came Riley, who was East Carolina’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2010 to 2014 before joining the Sooners.
“[S]o my only offer at the time was my dad’s team, and I didn’t really think that was a real offer. I thought it was just my dad’s team just throwing an offer out there.
And Coach Riley called me and offered me a couple months later. So I’ve always had a bunch of respect for him. I was actually really impressed with him on the phone very early. I didn’t really want to go to East Carolina, but I thought about it because of Coach Riley.
He’s a great coach. You can see that the last couple of years.”
Of course, Burrow ended up at Ohio State before transferring to LSU in 2018. And after a mediocre first season with the Tigers, he exploded in 2019 and enters the College Football Playoff with a 77.9 completion percentage, 4,715 passing yards and 48 touchdowns compared with six interceptions.
Burrow and LSU play Riley’s Sooners in the Peach Bowl on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET.
Which two teams will face off for a national championship in January?
Welcome to Before The Snap, For The Win’s college football show where we’ll break down the sport’s trending storylines, examine each week’s biggest matchups and track the College Football Playoff and Heisman Trophy races.
The College Football Playoff is finally here! So by the time Saturday night ends, the college football world will know which two teams will be facing off on January 13 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.
The two playoff games, played in the Peach Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl, are back-to-back Saturday with No. 1 LSU playing No. 4 Oklahoma and then No. 2 Ohio State taking on No. 3 Clemson. Should the two Tigers teams win, Clemson will play for its third title in four years, while LSU will play for its first national championship since 2007.
Let’s break down the two games.
College Football Playoff Semifinal: Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl
Who: No. 4 Oklahoma (12-1) vs. No. 1 LSU (13-0) Where: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta When: Saturday, December 28, 4 p.m. ET Spread:LSU -13.5
Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow is obviously the star of the show here with his 77.9 completion percentage, and with almost a month to prepare, he should have no issue taking apart Oklahoma’s defense, even if it is ranked at the top of the Big 12. On the other side, the key for the Sooners is about more than quarterback and Heisman finalist Jalen Hurts. While Hurts can beat just about anyone on the ground, he needs to connect with star wide receiver CeeDee Lamb as much as possible. The Tigers are ranked 57th nationally in yards per game allowed and are giving up 12.53 yards per completion. Their defense isn’t what LSU fans have been used to, and to have a chance at winning, Oklahoma needs to take advantage.
However, both teams may not be at full strength. For LSU, top running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire is questionable for the playoff game as he recovers form a hamstring injury. For Oklahoma, defensive lineman Ronnie Perkins, running back Rhamondre Stevenson and wide receiver Trejan Bridges are suspended for at least the semifinal game.
College Football Playoff Semifinal: Playstation Fiesta Bowl
Who: No. 3 Clemson (13-0) vs. No. 2 Ohio State (13-0) Where: State Farm Stadium, Glendale, Arizona When: Saturday, December 28, 8 p.m. ET Spread:Clemson -2.5
As Clemson coach Dabo Swinney recently pointed out, these two teams are “mirror images” of each other, more or less. Both teams are among the top five nationally in total offense, total defense, scoring offense and scoring defense, defensive yards per play and first downs.
More than Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence — who has never lost a college football game — running back Travis Etienne could be the key to a win for the Tigers. He has 1,500 yards this season with 17 touchdowns and 8.2 yards per attempt. If he’s on, Clemson’s offense could do some serious damage. For Ohio State, Heisman finalist Chase Young could change the course of the game. He leads the nation with 16.5 sacks this season in 11 games, but he’s been a little inconsistent as of late, and Lawrence has only been sacked 12 times this season.
Dabo Swinney sees a lot of similarities between the Tigers and Buckeyes.
As the No. 3 Clemson Tigers prepare to take on the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes in the College Football Playoff semifinal in the Playstation Fiesta Bowl next weekend, Dabo Swinney’s biggest observation about his next opponent is a fairly obvious one: “A complete team in every sense of the word,” he told ESPN’s Marty Smith.
All season, the Buckeyes have been at or very near the top of the country in both total offense and total defense, and their leaders on both sides of the ball, quarterback Justin Fields and defensive end Chase Young, were both 2019 Heisman Trophy finalists. They’ve dominated just about every opponent so far this season, and it wasn’t a question of if they’d make the playoff but whether or not they’d be the top seed. (LSU is and will face No. 4 Oklahoma.)
But the only other team that consistently ranked among the top five on both sides of the ball was Clemson. A week out, the Tigers are slight 2.5-point favorites.
“There’s just no weaknesses,” Swinney told Smith about Ohio State (just after the 22-minute mark in the video below).
“I mean, they’re really good. They’re a mirror image of us, to be quite honest with you. If you look at us statistically, we’re [No.] 1 in this, they’re [No.] 2 in this. We’re [No.] 2 in this, they’re [No.] 1 in this. We’re [No.] 3 in this, they’re [No.] 2. I mean, we’re literally mirror images of each other.
“So I really wasn’t surprised to see that statistical analysis, but when you watch the tape, they’re a complete football team just like we are. We’re one of the few teams out there top five in the country [in] total offense and total defense, and so are they. They’re just good.”
Going into the playoff semifinal, the Tigers are ranked No. 3 nationally in total offense (547.7 yards per game) behind LSU and Oklahoma, while the Buckeyes are No. 5 (531.0 yards per game). Tigers’ Trevor Lawrence and Buckeyes’ Justin Fields are two of the best quarterbacks in the game, and the same goes for running backs Travis Etienne and J.K. Dobbins.
When asked what comes to mind about Young, who leads the nation with 16.5 sacks this season (after missing two games), Swinney said:
“Speed, just a monster off the edge, man. He’s a fast, twitchy dude that can get to the quarterback.”
However, Lawrence is behind an offensive line that has limited his number of sacks to 12 so far this season, and although he has eight interceptions this season, he hasn’t thrown one since mid-October. But his counterpart, Fields, has thrown just one.
On the other side, Clemson is No. 1 in total defense (244.7 yards per game), and Ohio State is No. 2 (247.6 yards per game). They’re also both among the top-5 teams in scoring offense and scoring defense, defensive yards per play and first downs. On offense, Clemson is No. 4 with 7.51 yards per play, while Ohio State is No. 7 with 7.02.
Swinney continued to explain what he sees in Ohio State:
“Defensive line, strong. Linebackers, good players, elite players in the secondary that can all run and cover, just like we got. Flip it over to the offensive side: Elite quarterback, elite running back, elite wideouts, elite offensive line. So it’s literally a mirror image of each other. You’re just in different uniforms.
“So it’s gonna be fun, man, just like practice. It’s like what we practice against every day. You know, when we go out there live good-on-good, I mean, that’s the best way you can prepare for a game like this because that’s the level of talent that you’re getting ready to play. … There’s gonna be some fun matchups, but I don’t really see a weakness really anywhere.”
The Fiesta Bowl is the second semifinal Saturday, December 28. LSU and Oklahoma play in the Peach Bowl at 4 p.m. ET, and then Clemson and Ohio State face off at 8 p.m. ET.
