After beating Clemson, Ohio, 49-28 in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff in the Allstate Sugar Bowl 49-28, Tigers coach Dabo Swinney said it was clear the better team had won. But that would not change Swinney’s thoughts on where he put the Buckeyes on his vote in the USA Today Coaches Poll.
Swinney criticized Ohio State’s ranking in the playoffs, a decision he said he made solely because the Buckeyes only played six games, and said after Friday’s loss that he doubted it provided much motivation.
“I do not regret it, and polls have nothing to do with motivation,” Swinney said. “Both teams were very motivated to play.”
Swinney reiterated that his rankings were not intended to diminish the talent of Ohio State, but rather 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 very motivated to play, in part because of the rankings, but more because of the memories of the loss to Clemson, who played against Clemson last year. .
“I don’t know if we’re more excited about the chance to play for a national championship,” Day said, “or to avenge the loss.”
Day said he has no hard feelings about Swinney’s rankings, and that Clemson’s coach told him after Friday’s game to ‘win it all’.
Swinney underestimated the idea that Ohio State added motivation to win, saying his team was ready and focused, but simply did not do well against a talented Buckeyes group.
“They’re an excellent team,” Swinney said. “[The ranking] had nothing to do with the state of Ohio. I said they’re good enough to beat us, good enough to win the whole thing. But I did not think in my poll that someone who had not played at least nine games would place it in the top 10. I would not change it just because there was a chance we could play them. So I have no regrets about it. The only thing I regret, of course, is not the work that is good enough to get my team ready. But I do not regret it at all. ‘
A higher position by Swinney certainly would not have changed the outcome, said Jeremy Ruckert, tighthead prop in the state of Ohio.
“Anything motivates you, whether it’s what they say or what we say,” Ruckert said. “This is the biggest phase in university football. If it does not motivate you, I do not know what you are doing here. We have certainly heard what he said and used it as motivation, but the stage, the platform of the play-offs and the “Chance to keep going, it’s motivation in itself. Now we just have to keep that energy going.”