Click Above To Check Out
Tiger Trivia by Tim Bourret
Tiger Trivia by Tim Bourret
Clemson vs. Ohio State Preview
The Game
Fiesta Bowl/ College Football Playoff Semifinal
•Clemson (13-0, 8-0), ACC Champion vs. Ohio State (13-0, 9-0) Big Ten Champion
•Clemson ranked #3 by College Football Playoff, #3 by USA Today and #3 by AP
•Ohio State ranked #2 by College Football Playoff, #2 by AP, #2 by USA Today
•ESPN, 8:00 p.m. (Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Maria Taylor, Tom Rinaldi)
•State Farm Stadium, Glendale, Arizona, opened 2006 (72,158)
The Series
•Clemson leads the series 3-0 with all three wins coming in bowl games over top 20 Ohio State teams. Clemson defeated the #20 Buckeyes in the 1978 Gator Bowl, 17-15, downed seventh ranked Ohio State 40-35 in the Orange Bowl at the end of the 2013 season, and defeated second ranked Ohio State 31-0 in the 2016 Fiesta Bowl.
•All three Clemson wins over Ohio State have come against Ohio State coaches who had won the national championship. The Tigers defeated Woody Hayes in his last game as Ohio State coach in 1978, then defeated Urban Meyer in 2013 and 2016 in major bowl games.
•The 1978 Gator Bowl was Danny Ford’s first game as Clemson head coach (age 30) and Woody Hayes (age 65) final game. Both are in the College Football Hall of Fame. The game was clinched when Charlie Bauman intercepted an Art Schlichter pass in the final minutes. It was the only interception of Bauman’s four-year career.
•Clemson’s 40-35 win over the Buckeyes in the 2014 Orange Bowl was the final game for Tajh Boyd and Sammy Watkins as Tigers. Boyd completed 31-40 passes for 378 yards and five touchdowns and added 20 carries for 127 yards and a touchdown. Watkins had a Clemson record 16 receptions for 227 yards and two scores.
•Deshaun Watson led Clemson to the 31-0 victory at University of Phoenix Stadium (now State Farm Stadium) on New Year’s Eve 2016. Watson was 23-36 for 259 yards and a touchdown and added 57 yards rushing and two scores. Clemson held Ohio State to 88 yards rushing and 127 passing. It was the worst margin of defeat in a bowl game in Ohio State history and the first time Ohio State had been shut out in any game since 1993.
The Coaches
• Ryan Day, a 2002 New Hampshire graduate, is the head coach at Ohio State. He has a perfect 16-0 record for his career, 3-0 as a substitute coach for Urban Meyer in 2018, and 13-0 this year. He has experience as an assistant coach at Temple, Boston College, Florida, the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers. He is in just his third year at Ohio State. He came to Columbus as co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2017.
•Dabo Swinney is in his 11th full season (12th overall including seven games as interim head coach in 2008) at Clemson and has a 129-30 (.812) record entering the Fiesta Bowl. It took him 155 games to reach 125 wins, the 10th fewest games need to reach that victory total in FBS history.
•Swinney is one of nine coaches in FBS history with at least 150 games coached and an 80 percent winning percentage.
•Swinney is the winningest active coach at the FBS level. He moved ahead of Washington Coach Chris Petersen into first place among winningest active coaches (min five years) with the win at Louisville and Washington’s loss to Oregon at midseason. Petersen is retiring after the bowl season.
•Swinney’s record includes a 78-16 mark in ACC games and that .830 winning percentage is the best in league history.
•Swinney has led Clemson to five straight ACC Championships and six titles overall. He is the only coach in FBS history to win five straight league championship games. His six ACC titles tie the Clemson coaching record also held by Frank Howard. Howard also won two Southern Conference crowns, so Howard still holds the Clemson coaching record for total league championships.
•A win over Ohio State will give Swinney a .8125 winning percentage, 13th best in college football history. He will move ahead of Frank Thomas, a former Alabama coach and former player at Notre Dame under Knute Rockne. Thomas had a .8116 winning percentage.
Six Notes of Interest
• Clemson is 21-0 since 2015 against teams that enter a game with the Tigers without a loss. That includes wins over a 14-0 Alabama teams in 2016 and 2018 to win the National Championship, and a 12-0 Notre Dame team last year in the Cotton Bowl. Ohio State enters the Fiesta Bowl with a 13-0 record.
•Ohio State is 0-5 against FBS teams from the state of South Carolina and all five losses have come in bowl games. South Carolina defeated Ohio State in bowl games at the end of the 2000 and 2001 seasons.
•Clemson has an active streak of 16 consecutive games holding the opposition under 21 points. That is the longest streak for the program since a 31-game streak between 1937-40. The Clemson record is 38 in a row between 1899-05.
•Isaiah Simmons, the first Clemson player to win the Butkus Award as the nation’s top linebacker, became Clemson’s sixth unanimous first-team All-American in history when he made all five All-America teams recognized by the NCAA this year. He also earned his undergraduate degree on December 19. All six Clemson unanimous All-Americans (Terry Kinard, Gaines Adams, Da’Quan Bowers, C.J. Spiller, Christian Wilkins and Simmons) earned a college degree.
•In his Clemson career in the red zone, Trevor Lawrence is 67-93 for 522 yards and 36 touchdowns without an interception.
•Ohio State has a 13-0 record and outscored the opposition by an average of 36.2 points per game. Clemson is 13-0 and outscored the opposition by 35.9 points per game. No other schools have a victory margin by over 30 points per game this year.
Dabo Swinney on Ohio State
“I have seen them several times, actually. I think they played a lot of noon games this year so I was able to see them when we played late. And it’s just impressive. I mean, impressive. They are built strong in the trenches. They’re good up front on both sides. They’ve got as good a group of players on the edge as any team in the nation. Their quarterback, Justin Fields has been amazing. They’ve got great skill outside and great backs that can run the ball. So this is a very complete team, very well coached. Its going to be a challenge.”
Clemson Offense vs. Ohio State Defense
Both sides of the ball matchups will feature teams ranked in the top 10 in the nation in just about every category. When Clemson has the ball Ohio State will see a Tigers offense that is fourth in the nation in scoring (46.5) against an Ohio State defense that is third in scoring defense. Clemson’s offense averages 547.7 yards per game, third in the nation, and they will go against an Ohio State defense that is second in total defense, giving up just 247.6 yards per game.
In terms of passing, Clemson is 20th in passing yards per game, averaging 295 yards a game, while Ohio State is second in a pass defense, giving up just 148 yards per game. Clemson is 10th in rushing yards per game at 253 and Ohio State is seventh in rushing defense, allowing 99.5 yards a game.
Clemson averages 7.5 yards per play, on pace to be the best in Clemson history and fourth best in the nation. The Tigers are among the most balanced teams in the nation. The Tigers average at least 250 yards a game rushing and passing, have 40 rushing touchdowns and 38 passing touchdowns. The Tigers have 153 rushing first downs and 169 passing first downs. The Tigers have had five games with at least 298 yards rushing and six games with at least 300 yards passing, including each of the last four.
Trevor Lawrence has completed 232 of 337 passes for 3172 yards and 34 touchdowns against eight interceptions. He has gone 169 consecutive pass attempts without an interception and has thrown at least three touchdown passes in eight consecutive games. He has gone six consecutive games without an interception dating to the first half of the Louisville game. For the season the sophomore who is 24-0 as a starting quarterback, is fifth in the nation in touchdown passes (34), seventh in passing efficiency (176.44), ninth in yards per attempt (9.4) and 10th in completion percentage (68.8).
Second-team All-American Travis Etienne has 1500 yards rushing on just 182 attempts, a national best 8.24 yards per rush. The native of Louisiana is the ACC’s career leader in touchdowns with 58 and rushing touchdowns with 54. Etienne is also seventh in the nation in total touchdowns with 19 and seventh in yards from scrimmage with 1798.
Etienne has been named the ACC Player of the Year each of the last two years, just the second two-time selection in Clemson history (Steve Fuller 1977-78) and the first ACC running back to win the award twice since Mike Voight of North Carolina in 1975-76. Etienne needs just 43 rushing yards to become Clemson’s career leader and one 100-yard rushing game to break Wayne Gallman’s career record of 17.
The offensive line features four senior starters, the first time that has been the case at Clemson since 2007 and just the sixth time in the last 42 years. John Simpson has been the leader and was a consensus first-team All-American this year. Treymane Anchrum was first-team All-ACC. All five offensive linemen made at least one of the three All-ACC teams. That includes Jackson Carman, who is a native of Ohio and narrowed his college choices to Clemson and Ohio State.
The receiver position is led by Tee Higgins and Justyn Ross. Higgins has 13 touchdown receptions this year and 27 over his career, tied with Sammy Watkins and DeAndre Hopkins for the Clemson career record. This year Higgins has 52 receptions for 1082 yards and his 20.8 yards per catch is eighth in the nation overall, but second among players with at least 50 receptions. Ross has 55 catches to lead the team, for 742 yards and eight scores. For his career, Ross has 17 touchdown receptions. He had 301 receiving yards in the two CFP games last year.
Heisman finalist Chase Young is the leader of the Ohio State defense. The junior has only 44 total tackles, but has 21 tackles for loss, including 16.5 sacks. He was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy and won the Bednarik and Nagurski Awards as the national defensive player of the year.
The top tackler for Ohio State is Associated Press third-team All-American Malik Harrison, who has 69 total tackles, including 16 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks. Pete Werner has 68 tackles and five tackles for loss, while Jordan Fuller has 57 stops.
Tuf Borland has 52 tackles, while Baron Browning has added 40, including nine tackles for loss, fourth on the team. Ohio State has 51 sacks and 119 tackles for loss, both figures rank first in the nation, so it will be a challenge for Clemson’s offensive line that ranks fifth in fewest sacks allowed and 12th in fewest tackle for loss allowed.
Clemson Defense vs. Ohio State Offense
The Clemson defense did not allow a team to gain 300 yards of total offense until the ACC Championship game when Virginia gained 387. Still, Clemson’s defense is leading the nation in scoring defense (10.6), fewest passing yards allowed (138.5), fewest yards allowed per game (244.7), fewest first downs allowed per game (12.4), fewest touchdowns allowed (16) and pass efficiency defense (92.81).
The Tigers will face an Ohio State defense that leads the nation in scoring offense (48.7), is fifth in total offense (531), is fifth in rushing offense (272) and is fifth in pass efficiency offense. The Buckeyes are also first in the nation in total first downs gained with 369.
Like Ohio State’s defense, the Tigers don’t have players with a lot of tackles. Isaiah Simmons leads the way with 91, including a team best 14 tackles for loss and a team best seven sacks. He has six passes broken up and an interception and fumble recovery. Simmons was Clemson’s first winner of the Butkus Award and was a finalist for the Bednarik Award. He was Clemson’s sixth unanimous first-team All-American in history.
Clemson’s top three tacklers are linebackers. Supporting Simmons have been James Skalski with his 77 total tackles, including six tackles for loss, and fifth year senior Chad Smith, who as 62 total stops. K’Von Wallace is an All-ACC safety who has 57 tackles and a team best 10 passes defensed, while Tanner Muse is the other safety. Muse has 47 stops to go with a team best four interceptions. Muse made first-team All-ACC and was third-team All-American according to Associated Press.
The defensive line has been led by Baylor Spector, a defensive end with 37 tackles. Freshman All-American Tyler Davis has 36 tackles, seven tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks from a defensive tackle position, while Justin Foster has 27 tackles, including eight tackles for loss. A.J. Terrell is a first-team All-ACC cornerback with 23 tackles and two interceptions. He had a “pick six” in the National Championship victory over Alabama last year.
Clemson’s defense will be challenged by an Ohio State defense with star players at each position. Second-team AP All-American Quarterback Justin Fields is 208-308 for 2953 yards and 40 touchdowns (third in the nation) against just one interception this year. He has a passing efficiency rating of 190.3 that is fourth in the nation. He was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy. Also a solid runner, Fields has 471 yards on the ground on 123 attempts and has scored 10 touchdowns.
Running back J.K. Dobbins was a first-team All-American who gained 1829 yards on 283 attempts, a 6.5 average and scored 20 touchdowns. His backup, Master Teague, gained 780 yards on 128 carries and scored four times.
K.J. Hill is the top receiver in terms of receptions with 51-569 and 10 scores. Like Clemson, the second leading receiver in receptions is the top receiver in yards. Chris Olave has 46 catches for 799 yards and 11 scores. Binjimen Victor is a third Ohio State player with at least 500 yards receiving as he has 535 on 32 catches and has six scores.
Special Teams
•Clemson’s kickoff man B.T. Potter has 69 touchbacks on 90 kickoffs so far this year and is first in the nation in kickoffs with a 64.59 yards per kickoff average. He has 148 career touchbacks on 204 kickoffs and has kicked just one out of bounds in his career. At Louisville he made a 51-yard field goal, the second 51-yarder he has made this year, and he is 12-19 on field goals this year, but has made five of his last six.
•Will Spiers is one of the most improved punters in the nation, as his average has gone from 38.9 to 42.5. He has allowed just three punt returns for 20 yards this year and his individual net average of 42.3, near the Clemson single season record of 42.6 by Dale Hatcher in 1984.
•In terms of returns, Joseph Ngata has a 23.2 kickoff return average on 14 returns. Amari Rodgers has a solid 10.6 punt return average.
•Ohio State’s field goal kicker has attempted just 12 field goals because the offense is so proficient. Blake Haubell is 10-12 with a long made field goal of 55 yards. He has missed from 32 and 37 yards. Haubell has 106 kickoffs, but has just 27 touchbacks.
•Punter Drue Chrisman averages 44.1 yards a punt and has 15 punts inside the 20 against eight touchbacks. Punt returner Garrett Wilson averages 6.9 yards a punt return on 12 attempts, while Demario McCall has 10 kickoff returns for a 23.2 average.
The Game
Fiesta Bowl/ College Football Playoff Semifinal
•Clemson (13-0, 8-0), ACC Champion vs. Ohio State (13-0, 9-0) Big Ten Champion
•Clemson ranked #3 by College Football Playoff, #3 by USA Today and #3 by AP
•Ohio State ranked #2 by College Football Playoff, #2 by AP, #2 by USA Today
•ESPN, 8:00 p.m. (Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Maria Taylor, Tom Rinaldi)
•State Farm Stadium, Glendale, Arizona, opened 2006 (72,158)
The Series
•Clemson leads the series 3-0 with all three wins coming in bowl games over top 20 Ohio State teams. Clemson defeated the #20 Buckeyes in the 1978 Gator Bowl, 17-15, downed seventh ranked Ohio State 40-35 in the Orange Bowl at the end of the 2013 season, and defeated second ranked Ohio State 31-0 in the 2016 Fiesta Bowl.
•All three Clemson wins over Ohio State have come against Ohio State coaches who had won the national championship. The Tigers defeated Woody Hayes in his last game as Ohio State coach in 1978, then defeated Urban Meyer in 2013 and 2016 in major bowl games.
•The 1978 Gator Bowl was Danny Ford’s first game as Clemson head coach (age 30) and Woody Hayes (age 65) final game. Both are in the College Football Hall of Fame. The game was clinched when Charlie Bauman intercepted an Art Schlichter pass in the final minutes. It was the only interception of Bauman’s four-year career.
•Clemson’s 40-35 win over the Buckeyes in the 2014 Orange Bowl was the final game for Tajh Boyd and Sammy Watkins as Tigers. Boyd completed 31-40 passes for 378 yards and five touchdowns and added 20 carries for 127 yards and a touchdown. Watkins had a Clemson record 16 receptions for 227 yards and two scores.
•Deshaun Watson led Clemson to the 31-0 victory at University of Phoenix Stadium (now State Farm Stadium) on New Year’s Eve 2016. Watson was 23-36 for 259 yards and a touchdown and added 57 yards rushing and two scores. Clemson held Ohio State to 88 yards rushing and 127 passing. It was the worst margin of defeat in a bowl game in Ohio State history and the first time Ohio State had been shut out in any game since 1993.
The Coaches
• Ryan Day, a 2002 New Hampshire graduate, is the head coach at Ohio State. He has a perfect 16-0 record for his career, 3-0 as a substitute coach for Urban Meyer in 2018, and 13-0 this year. He has experience as an assistant coach at Temple, Boston College, Florida, the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers. He is in just his third year at Ohio State. He came to Columbus as co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2017.
•Dabo Swinney is in his 11th full season (12th overall including seven games as interim head coach in 2008) at Clemson and has a 129-30 (.812) record entering the Fiesta Bowl. It took him 155 games to reach 125 wins, the 10th fewest games need to reach that victory total in FBS history.
•Swinney is one of nine coaches in FBS history with at least 150 games coached and an 80 percent winning percentage.
•Swinney is the winningest active coach at the FBS level. He moved ahead of Washington Coach Chris Petersen into first place among winningest active coaches (min five years) with the win at Louisville and Washington’s loss to Oregon at midseason. Petersen is retiring after the bowl season.
•Swinney’s record includes a 78-16 mark in ACC games and that .830 winning percentage is the best in league history.
•Swinney has led Clemson to five straight ACC Championships and six titles overall. He is the only coach in FBS history to win five straight league championship games. His six ACC titles tie the Clemson coaching record also held by Frank Howard. Howard also won two Southern Conference crowns, so Howard still holds the Clemson coaching record for total league championships.
•A win over Ohio State will give Swinney a .8125 winning percentage, 13th best in college football history. He will move ahead of Frank Thomas, a former Alabama coach and former player at Notre Dame under Knute Rockne. Thomas had a .8116 winning percentage.
Six Notes of Interest
• Clemson is 21-0 since 2015 against teams that enter a game with the Tigers without a loss. That includes wins over a 14-0 Alabama teams in 2016 and 2018 to win the National Championship, and a 12-0 Notre Dame team last year in the Cotton Bowl. Ohio State enters the Fiesta Bowl with a 13-0 record.
•Ohio State is 0-5 against FBS teams from the state of South Carolina and all five losses have come in bowl games. South Carolina defeated Ohio State in bowl games at the end of the 2000 and 2001 seasons.
•Clemson has an active streak of 16 consecutive games holding the opposition under 21 points. That is the longest streak for the program since a 31-game streak between 1937-40. The Clemson record is 38 in a row between 1899-05.
•Isaiah Simmons, the first Clemson player to win the Butkus Award as the nation’s top linebacker, became Clemson’s sixth unanimous first-team All-American in history when he made all five All-America teams recognized by the NCAA this year. He also earned his undergraduate degree on December 19. All six Clemson unanimous All-Americans (Terry Kinard, Gaines Adams, Da’Quan Bowers, C.J. Spiller, Christian Wilkins and Simmons) earned a college degree.
•In his Clemson career in the red zone, Trevor Lawrence is 67-93 for 522 yards and 36 touchdowns without an interception.
•Ohio State has a 13-0 record and outscored the opposition by an average of 36.2 points per game. Clemson is 13-0 and outscored the opposition by 35.9 points per game. No other schools have a victory margin by over 30 points per game this year.
Dabo Swinney on Ohio State
“I have seen them several times, actually. I think they played a lot of noon games this year so I was able to see them when we played late. And it’s just impressive. I mean, impressive. They are built strong in the trenches. They’re good up front on both sides. They’ve got as good a group of players on the edge as any team in the nation. Their quarterback, Justin Fields has been amazing. They’ve got great skill outside and great backs that can run the ball. So this is a very complete team, very well coached. Its going to be a challenge.”
Clemson Offense vs. Ohio State Defense
Both sides of the ball matchups will feature teams ranked in the top 10 in the nation in just about every category. When Clemson has the ball Ohio State will see a Tigers offense that is fourth in the nation in scoring (46.5) against an Ohio State defense that is third in scoring defense. Clemson’s offense averages 547.7 yards per game, third in the nation, and they will go against an Ohio State defense that is second in total defense, giving up just 247.6 yards per game.
In terms of passing, Clemson is 20th in passing yards per game, averaging 295 yards a game, while Ohio State is second in a pass defense, giving up just 148 yards per game. Clemson is 10th in rushing yards per game at 253 and Ohio State is seventh in rushing defense, allowing 99.5 yards a game.
Clemson averages 7.5 yards per play, on pace to be the best in Clemson history and fourth best in the nation. The Tigers are among the most balanced teams in the nation. The Tigers average at least 250 yards a game rushing and passing, have 40 rushing touchdowns and 38 passing touchdowns. The Tigers have 153 rushing first downs and 169 passing first downs. The Tigers have had five games with at least 298 yards rushing and six games with at least 300 yards passing, including each of the last four.
Trevor Lawrence has completed 232 of 337 passes for 3172 yards and 34 touchdowns against eight interceptions. He has gone 169 consecutive pass attempts without an interception and has thrown at least three touchdown passes in eight consecutive games. He has gone six consecutive games without an interception dating to the first half of the Louisville game. For the season the sophomore who is 24-0 as a starting quarterback, is fifth in the nation in touchdown passes (34), seventh in passing efficiency (176.44), ninth in yards per attempt (9.4) and 10th in completion percentage (68.8).
Second-team All-American Travis Etienne has 1500 yards rushing on just 182 attempts, a national best 8.24 yards per rush. The native of Louisiana is the ACC’s career leader in touchdowns with 58 and rushing touchdowns with 54. Etienne is also seventh in the nation in total touchdowns with 19 and seventh in yards from scrimmage with 1798.
Etienne has been named the ACC Player of the Year each of the last two years, just the second two-time selection in Clemson history (Steve Fuller 1977-78) and the first ACC running back to win the award twice since Mike Voight of North Carolina in 1975-76. Etienne needs just 43 rushing yards to become Clemson’s career leader and one 100-yard rushing game to break Wayne Gallman’s career record of 17.
The offensive line features four senior starters, the first time that has been the case at Clemson since 2007 and just the sixth time in the last 42 years. John Simpson has been the leader and was a consensus first-team All-American this year. Treymane Anchrum was first-team All-ACC. All five offensive linemen made at least one of the three All-ACC teams. That includes Jackson Carman, who is a native of Ohio and narrowed his college choices to Clemson and Ohio State.
The receiver position is led by Tee Higgins and Justyn Ross. Higgins has 13 touchdown receptions this year and 27 over his career, tied with Sammy Watkins and DeAndre Hopkins for the Clemson career record. This year Higgins has 52 receptions for 1082 yards and his 20.8 yards per catch is eighth in the nation overall, but second among players with at least 50 receptions. Ross has 55 catches to lead the team, for 742 yards and eight scores. For his career, Ross has 17 touchdown receptions. He had 301 receiving yards in the two CFP games last year.
Heisman finalist Chase Young is the leader of the Ohio State defense. The junior has only 44 total tackles, but has 21 tackles for loss, including 16.5 sacks. He was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy and won the Bednarik and Nagurski Awards as the national defensive player of the year.
The top tackler for Ohio State is Associated Press third-team All-American Malik Harrison, who has 69 total tackles, including 16 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks. Pete Werner has 68 tackles and five tackles for loss, while Jordan Fuller has 57 stops.
Tuf Borland has 52 tackles, while Baron Browning has added 40, including nine tackles for loss, fourth on the team. Ohio State has 51 sacks and 119 tackles for loss, both figures rank first in the nation, so it will be a challenge for Clemson’s offensive line that ranks fifth in fewest sacks allowed and 12th in fewest tackle for loss allowed.
Clemson Defense vs. Ohio State Offense
The Clemson defense did not allow a team to gain 300 yards of total offense until the ACC Championship game when Virginia gained 387. Still, Clemson’s defense is leading the nation in scoring defense (10.6), fewest passing yards allowed (138.5), fewest yards allowed per game (244.7), fewest first downs allowed per game (12.4), fewest touchdowns allowed (16) and pass efficiency defense (92.81).
The Tigers will face an Ohio State defense that leads the nation in scoring offense (48.7), is fifth in total offense (531), is fifth in rushing offense (272) and is fifth in pass efficiency offense. The Buckeyes are also first in the nation in total first downs gained with 369.
Like Ohio State’s defense, the Tigers don’t have players with a lot of tackles. Isaiah Simmons leads the way with 91, including a team best 14 tackles for loss and a team best seven sacks. He has six passes broken up and an interception and fumble recovery. Simmons was Clemson’s first winner of the Butkus Award and was a finalist for the Bednarik Award. He was Clemson’s sixth unanimous first-team All-American in history.
Clemson’s top three tacklers are linebackers. Supporting Simmons have been James Skalski with his 77 total tackles, including six tackles for loss, and fifth year senior Chad Smith, who as 62 total stops. K’Von Wallace is an All-ACC safety who has 57 tackles and a team best 10 passes defensed, while Tanner Muse is the other safety. Muse has 47 stops to go with a team best four interceptions. Muse made first-team All-ACC and was third-team All-American according to Associated Press.
The defensive line has been led by Baylor Spector, a defensive end with 37 tackles. Freshman All-American Tyler Davis has 36 tackles, seven tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks from a defensive tackle position, while Justin Foster has 27 tackles, including eight tackles for loss. A.J. Terrell is a first-team All-ACC cornerback with 23 tackles and two interceptions. He had a “pick six” in the National Championship victory over Alabama last year.
Clemson’s defense will be challenged by an Ohio State defense with star players at each position. Second-team AP All-American Quarterback Justin Fields is 208-308 for 2953 yards and 40 touchdowns (third in the nation) against just one interception this year. He has a passing efficiency rating of 190.3 that is fourth in the nation. He was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy. Also a solid runner, Fields has 471 yards on the ground on 123 attempts and has scored 10 touchdowns.
Running back J.K. Dobbins was a first-team All-American who gained 1829 yards on 283 attempts, a 6.5 average and scored 20 touchdowns. His backup, Master Teague, gained 780 yards on 128 carries and scored four times.
K.J. Hill is the top receiver in terms of receptions with 51-569 and 10 scores. Like Clemson, the second leading receiver in receptions is the top receiver in yards. Chris Olave has 46 catches for 799 yards and 11 scores. Binjimen Victor is a third Ohio State player with at least 500 yards receiving as he has 535 on 32 catches and has six scores.
Special Teams
•Clemson’s kickoff man B.T. Potter has 69 touchbacks on 90 kickoffs so far this year and is first in the nation in kickoffs with a 64.59 yards per kickoff average. He has 148 career touchbacks on 204 kickoffs and has kicked just one out of bounds in his career. At Louisville he made a 51-yard field goal, the second 51-yarder he has made this year, and he is 12-19 on field goals this year, but has made five of his last six.
•Will Spiers is one of the most improved punters in the nation, as his average has gone from 38.9 to 42.5. He has allowed just three punt returns for 20 yards this year and his individual net average of 42.3, near the Clemson single season record of 42.6 by Dale Hatcher in 1984.
•In terms of returns, Joseph Ngata has a 23.2 kickoff return average on 14 returns. Amari Rodgers has a solid 10.6 punt return average.
•Ohio State’s field goal kicker has attempted just 12 field goals because the offense is so proficient. Blake Haubell is 10-12 with a long made field goal of 55 yards. He has missed from 32 and 37 yards. Haubell has 106 kickoffs, but has just 27 touchbacks.
•Punter Drue Chrisman averages 44.1 yards a punt and has 15 punts inside the 20 against eight touchbacks. Punt returner Garrett Wilson averages 6.9 yards a punt return on 12 attempts, while Demario McCall has 10 kickoff returns for a 23.2 average.