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After Ohio State missed Clemson 49-28 in the college football playoff semifinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Friday, Tigers coach Dabo Swinney said it was clear the best team had won. But that wouldn’t change Swinney’s mind about where he ranked the Buckeyes on his ballot in the USA Today Coaching Poll.
Swinney has been criticized for placing Ohio State 11th entering the playoffs, a move he said he made exclusively because the Buckeyes had only played six games, and he said afterwards Friday’s loss that he doubted that would provide much motivation.
“I don’t regret any of this, 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 aimed at diminishing 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, partly because of the standings, but more so because of memories of losing in the playoffs. against Clemson last year.
“I don’t know if we’re more excited to have a chance to play for a national championship,” Day said, “or to avenge that loss.”
Day said he had no resentment about Swinney’s ranking, and that after Friday’s game, Clemson’s coach told him to “go out and win it”.
Swinney played down any notion that Ohio State added the motivation to win, saying her team were prepared and focused, but just didn’t perform well against a talented Buckeyes team.
“They’re a great team,” Swinney said. “[The ranking] had nothing to do with the state of Ohio. I said they were good enough to beat us, good enough to win the whole dang thing. But I didn’t think of anyone who hadn’t played at least nine games in my poll that I wasn’t going to put them in the top 10. So I wasn’t going to change that just because there was a luck we could play them. So I have no regrets about this. The only thing I regret is not having done a good enough job preparing my team. But I don’t regret anything about it at all. “
A higher ranking from Swinney certainly wouldn’t have changed the outcome, said Ohio State tight end Jeremy Ruckert, but it helped make Friday’s dominating performance a little smoother.
“Everything motivates you, whether it’s what they say or what we say,” Ruckert said. “It’s the biggest step in college football. If that doesn’t motivate you, I don’t know what you are doing here. We certainly heard what he was saying and used it as motivation, but the scene, the platform of the playoffs and the chance to move on is the motivation itself. We just have to keep that energy going. “
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