Colin Cowherd has made his pick for Ohio State vs. Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl. He did it while trashing the big ten.
The narrative continues to be set. Clemson is just too much for this Ohio State team. More and more media members are giving the Buckeyes no shot at hanging with the Tigers because of their speed, coaching and athleticism.
And now you can count FOX Sports’ Colin Cowherd in that crowd. While appearing on his morning sports talk show, the sports personality sided with the Clemson Tigers in the Fiesta Bowl matchup set to take place Saturday.
“Clemson minus two, I like Clemson to win by a touchdown,” said Cowherd. “I thought the number was low, I think we’re undervaluing Clemson. I think we look at their conference and say they didn’t play anybody, and that is a huge benefit. They are healthy, they got a ton of depth, and I believe when you don’t know who’s going to win, you go with the coaching staff in college, and I think Clemson has the best coaching staff by a wide margin. They have three current head coaches, capable guys that could run programs. Dabo is just the No. 1 guy. I’m going to take Clemson here.”
Cowherd then went on to talk about Trevor Lawrence and Clemson’s defense.
“First of all, Trevor Lawrence since week nine — good luck. Ohio State’s defense gets the credit, I could argue Clemson’s is actually better — first in the country in multiple categories. Trevor Lawrence since week nine has been unstoppable.”
But Cowherd didn’t stop there. He went on to trash the entire Big Ten.
“I don’t think the ACC is great, but who who in the Big Ten is amazing outside of Ohio State,” Cowherd said. “Michigan? Lost to all the good teams they played. Wisconsin? Well-coached certainly, not a ton of great NFL players. Who else you selling me in that conference? Iowa? Okay, not special. Listen, right now Ohio State’s defense is good, but in the last four games, they’re allowing 21 (points) a game. That’s against Big Ten defenses (meant to say offenses we’re sure). Clemson — NFL back, NFL quarterback, NFL offensive line, NFL tight end, NFL receivers. I think Clemson is going to win 36-30, I’m not sure it will feel that close, but I think this is the type of speed Ohio State has not seen anything close to, and Clemson has. They’re 5-0 in the last two years against SEC speed and they’ve blown most of those SEC teams like Alabama out.”
You can catch the entire segment below thanks to it being shared by his radio show.
Okay. There are so many things we could point out with this horrible and lazy analysis. Are we really still on the SEC speed thing despite Ohio State being one of the fastest teams in the country over the last few years. We’ve seen wide receivers, DBs, and other defensive players translate very well to the NFL, and scouts and metrics would tell you that this team is even more talented. That doesn’t mean OSU will win the game, but that’s a lazy and uneducated argument.
Also, to say Ohio State will struggle because Clemson will have more speed than anyone the Buckeyes have faced is the same argument you could make for what the Tigers will face. Cancel that out. You can’t use past history as experience and anyone should know that in college football. This year’s Clemson team has a totally different defense than what it’s had over the last couple of years.
Lastly, any analyst (besides Cowherd apparently) would take playing against Michigan, Wisconsin, (OSU didn’t play Iowa by the way), or Penn State, who Cowherd didn’t even mention, over the likes of what Clemson has faced. In fact, the Big Ten has three teams going to New Year’s six bowls. That’s tied with the SEC for the most of any conference.
Look, I know Cowherd gets paid to say things and it’s tough to come up with stuff when teams are pretty equal in the talent department, but none of these reasons make a bit of sense. After all, remember, this is the same guy that didn’t know Joe Burrow played for Ohio State originally.
