After Ohio State faced Clemson 49-28 in the semifinals of the college football qualifier at the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Friday, Tigers coach Dabo Swinney said it was clear who won the best team. But that wouldn’t change Swinney’s view on where he ranked the Buckeyes in their vote in the U.S. Today Coaches poll.
Swinney received criticism for qualifying Ohio State eleventh to enter the playoffs, a decision he said he made exclusively because the Buckeyes played just six games, and said after Friday’s loss that he doubts this would provide much motivation. .
“I don’t regret anything, and the polls have nothing to do with motivation,” Swinney said. “Both teams were very motivated to play.”
Swinney reiterated that his ranking was not intended to diminish Ohio State’s talent, but a decision not to place any team with less than nine games in its top 10.
After the game, Ohio State coach Ryan Day said his team was highly motivated to play, in part because of the standings, but even more so for memories of their playoff loss against Clemson last year.
“I don’t know if we’re more excited about the opportunity to play in a national championship,” Day said, “or avenge that loss.”
Day said he had no harsh feelings about Swinney’s ranking and that after Friday’s game, Clemson’s coach told him to “go out and win it all.”
Swinney downplayed any idea that Ohio State had added a motivation to win, saying his team was prepared and focused, but just didn’t perform well against a talented Buckeyes team.
“They’re a great team,” Swinney said. “[The ranking] it had nothing to do with Ohio State. I said they were good enough to win us over, good enough to win us the whole dang thing. But in my poll I didn’t think anyone who didn’t play at least nine games wouldn’t put them in the top ten. So I wouldn’t change it just because there was a chance we could play them. So I’m not sorry. The only thing I’m sorry about is obviously not doing a good enough job to prepare my team. But I don’t regret any of that. “
A higher Swinney ranking certainly wouldn’t have changed the outcome, said Ohio State winger Jeremy Ruckert, but it helped make Friday’s dominant performance a little sweeter.
“Everything that motivates you, whether it’s what they say or what we say,” Ruckert said. “This is the biggest stage of college football. If that doesn’t motivate you, I don’t know what you’re doing here. We definitely listened to what he said and used it as motivation, but the stage, the playoff platform and the “opportunity to move on, that’s a motivation in itself. Now we just have to keep that energy.”