PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. -- Ohio State co-defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley has put his head-coaching career on hold. That includes telling his new employer, Boston College, to wait. Full stop until after the College Football Playoff.
"I haven't missed [an Ohio State] practice, not one," said Hafley, who took the BC job on Dec. 14.
Forget guiding the nation's No. 2 defense for the nation's No. 2 team in his first and only season at Ohio State. Hafley wouldn't miss what is about to play out here. Not for the world.
No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 3 Clemson is a College Football Playoff semifinal in name, but it has all the trappings of a national title game. It is certainly the sexier of the two semifinals -- in a football sense. Put it this way, there's a reason ESPN put Ohio State-Clemson in prime time.
They are two undefeated teams who have barely been challenged this season. Not surprisingly, in Las Vegas, only two points separate them (in Clemson's favor).
The Buckeyes and Tigers might as well be poster children for the CFP. They have combined to win three of the previous five championships, making eight combined CFP appearances.
The nation's second highest-paid assistant, Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables, is trying to stop Ohio State's rookie coach, Ryan Day, who calls his team's offensive plays. As that head coaching rookie, Day was asked if he understood that it had been all the way back to 2014 since Ohio State had won a playoff game.
No pressure, big guy.
"Some of the things that happened in the past have nothing to do with this team or this coaching staff," Day said.
Except that nothing short of NCAA penalties seems to be able to stop this program. Even then … Since starting the 2012 season with a postseason ban, Ohio State is 99-9.
Never mind that Day is the first Ohio State coach since 1945 to take the position without any previous head coaching experience.
Dabo Swinney was once that hot young coach. He was asked to react to his statement 10 years ago that Clemson was about to embark on its best decade in history.
"My prediction is the best is yet to come," said the man who is still a hot, somewhat older coach at the ripe age of 50.
Ohio State was the first team to have three Heisman Trophy finalists -- counting two current players (Chase Young, Justin Fields) and one former player (LSU quarterback and Ohio State graduate Joe Burrow). Clemson is trying to become the fourth team since 1995 to win back-to-back national titles. The others? Nebraska, USC and the team the Tigers have replaced as the reigning best program in the country, Alabama.
The game is sexy, yes, but will the winner have anything left? After this summit meeting, Saturday's winner will be asked to defeat either No. 1 LSU or No. 4 Oklahoma on Jan. 13 in New Orleans.
"It is a national championship game," Swinney said of Saturday's semifinal, "because if you don't win it, you don't go to the national championship game."
The matchup is oozing with NFL talent. CBS Sports NFL draft analyst Ryan Wilson estimates 15-20 draftable players including two top 10 passers -- Ohio State's Justin Fields and Clemson's Trevor Lawrence.
"You want to talk about two special quarterbacks," said Hafley, who came to Ohio State straight from being the 49ers secondary coach. "This is the future of the NFL, playing in this game. To me, that's the headline. For the next 10 years you have -- God willing they both stay healthy -- these two guys leading the way. That is the story right there."
That is the story? There is so much more to this game. Ohio State's Chase Young as the game's best defensive edge threat in a decade. Clemson is trying to win a third national championship in four years. J.K. Dobbins is trying to become a 2,000-yarder and pass Heisman winner Eddie George as Ohio State's single-season rushing leader.
"Just make sure I get a byline," Hafley told a small group of reporters. "If not, I'm coming after all you guys."
Lawrence was the prodigy who some said (hand raised) could have gone directly from beating Alabama to the NFL. When Lawrence came out of September leading the ACC in interceptions, there was work to be done. He finished the second half of the season throwing 20 touchdowns without an interception.
Last January, Fields said he had two weeks to make a transfer decision after leaving Georgia before deciding on Ohio State. His only contact with Day came in high school when Ohio State's then-offensive coordinator recruited him out of Kennesaw, Georgia.
"Justin plays quarterback," Hafley said. "Justin is an NFL, sit-in-the-pocket, read-it, keep-the-play-alive, keep-my-eyes-down-the-field, make the big time throw."
We'll see if that's still the case with Fields nursing a sprained MCL.
It is a matchup of the nation's top two winning streaks. Clemson is trying to extend a 28-game winning streak but has been doubted for its schedule strength.
"It's hard to win 28 games against air," Day said.
Ohio State has won the last 19 in a row itself, which included defeating three consecutive top 10 teams heading into the Fiesta Bowl.
"That's really where it became March Madness," Day said. "Lose one of those [three] games you're going home."
Hafley says he is willing to put his first BC recruiting class at risk to coach to the end of his only season at Ohio State.
At 40, the future is now. Before coming to Ohio State, Hafley hadn't coached in college in eight years. There have been four stops in the NFL as an assistant. Hafley
never spent more than three seasons in any of his coaching stops that started in 2001 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Saturday, then, represents something lasting.
"It probably hurts [BC recruiting] a little bit, but in the end, it will help it," Hafley said. "BC will get good publicity. If we go to the national championship, the same thing. I can talk to these recruits and give them my NFL background. Now I can give them my college football background."
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/fiesta-bowl-rematch-might-as-well-be-a-title-game-as-powerhouses-ohio-state-clemson-collide/
2019-12-28 16:04:00Z
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