Alabama, Clemson advance to national title game

Now, the Tide will try to prevent Clemson from becoming the first team in FBS history to finish 15-0.

Anything, even defensive tackles making a mockery of what science and evolution dictate defensive tackles should be able to do athletically. Two days before the national semifinal game, Swinney suspended three players for violating team rules, including speedy receiver Deon Cain, one of the team’s best deep threats.

It has been like this all year for Clemson, for a unit that was hit hard over the offseason by a massive exodus.

Coach Bob Stoops shook up his staff and guided the Sooners within two victories of their first national title since 2000.

“I hope so”, center Jay Guillermo said. “I’m proud as hell of them to get where they are”. It was up there for a little while.

Only one wall remains, and whether it tumbles or not, one thing is certain – Swinney will be smiling all the while, and that puts him into some rarefied air, too.

Free spirits? Who the heck calls a fake punt pass to a 322-pound freshman defensive tackle, as Swinney did against the flummoxed Sooners. Clemson was in the end zone two plays later. “This is it. This is truly the biggest game of the year”. “It’s just that simple”, Swinney said. “It started in the elevator, they was talking, we wasn’t saying nothing”. The last made it 38-0 halfway through the fourth quarter.

This year’s title game is a dream matchup, to be sure, with more storylines than an Agatha Christie novel.

Clemson punter Andy Teasdall rolled right as if he was punting one rugby-style, then deciding to throw back across the field to defensive tackle Christian Wilkins for a 31-yard gain. “Nothing is going to keep me from playing that game”.

Now he will wind up facing his alma mater in Clemson’s biggest game in more than 34 years.

They don’t come any looser than the colorful, quotable Swinney, who has championed locker room moves to the extent that he’s a candidate for “Dancing With the Stars”. He was 4-for-4 Thursday. This game also is about darkness and light and the shadow of Bear Bryant. He kicked off eight times for four touchbacks and four inconsequential returns.

“I knew that we would be here”, Swinney said. “I hadn’t taken a full swing in a while, just because I didn’t want to tire my leg out”.

Earlier in the day Thursday, Lawson made headlines for a different reason, when Dusty Dvoracek and Carey Murdock of WWLS-FM reported that Lawson went onto Oklahoma’s team bus after an event Wednesday and talked trash to the Sooners’ entire team.

While quarterback Deshaun Watson gets a lot of credit for Clemson’s success, and deservedly so, it was the Clemson defense that has the Tigers headed to Arizona. He finished with 75 yards but did score two touchdowns. Where Mike Williams gets hurt in September and Lakip gets suspended in July and Lakip and Cain each get suspended Tuesday and it just doesn’t matter because walk-ons like Renfrow and Huegel come out of the woodwork to make an impact.

Top-ranked Clemson and No. 2 Alabama will face off in the desert for the national championship after dominating wins in the College Football Playoff semifinals Thursday.

Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield completed 26 of 41 passes for 311 yards and one touchdown. After outrushing Oklahoma 312 yards to 67, it’s pretty clear that’s no longer an issue.

The triumphant Clemson Tigers returned home from the Orange Bowl on Friday to a hero’s welcome outside Death Valley, as a cheering crowd of about 2,000 turned out to thank them for taking them to the mountaintop on New Year’s Eve.