Happy 2021. After the most tumultuous season in college football history, filled with all sorts of adversity, cancellations, postponements, and general chaos, the College Football Playoff is finally upon us. The field of 4 has been set for a couple of weeks now, and it’s finally time to play the games. People are still debating about the teams that got in and who got left out, but there is no doubt in my mind that these 4 teams are the ones who deserve to be here the most. Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, and Notre Dame all had great seasons, and it should be very fun to see them all compete for a national championship. Without any further ado, let’s predict what will happen in the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl, and who will advance to the national championship game.
Alabama 42-28 Notre Dame 
Rose Bowl Game – Friday, 4:00 PM, ESPN
This one is seemingly obvious, but I really don’t think Notre Dame has been getting a fair shake from both fans and the media. Yes, the Irish were absolutely wiped by Clemson in the ACC Championship Game, but they still had a great season and absolutely deserve to be in the Playoff. Alabama is quite a daunting challenge, but something in me is convinced that the Irish can keep this game close. I just don’t see them having back-to-back lifeless performances, even against a team as powerful as the Tide.
While I think Notre Dame can hang around for a while, there is no doubt in my mind that Alabama will pull away and come out of this game with the win. The talent gap is simply too massive, which was already apparent with Notre Dame’s performance against Clemson in their last game. Alabama’s three-headed monster of QB Mac Jones, RB Najee Harris, and WR Devonta Smith is simply too much for anyone to overcome. Their remarkable performances in the SEC Championship Game against Florida were just a microcosm of their incredible seasons, and one of Jones or Smith will win a very deserved Heisman. The offense of the Tide is too much for any defense to overcome, even though I do think the Irish D is not bad at all. Them getting completely gashed by Clemson’s offense has simply sucked out all faith I have in them to put their offense in a position to win the game.
As I said before, I still expect Notre Dame to put up a much better fight in this game than they did against Clemson, and that is almost entirely due to the fact that Alabama’s defense looked absolutely invisible in the SEC Championship Game. Florida absolutely ripped them apart to the tune of 46 points on 462 total yards, and if it wasn’t for a fluke fumble on an INT, the Gators could have very well pulled off the upset. Bama’s offense more than made up for the shortcomings of their defense, but you cannot expect to play that way defensively if you want to win a national championship. If the Irish can exploit that defense and get their offense rolling, then it could make for some interesting developments in Arlington.
With all this being said, it’s still just too hard to see the Irish even coming close to pulling off the upset. There’s a reason they’re the biggest underdogs in CFP history coming into this game. For whatever reason, I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt to stick around for a while, but I can totally see this game getting out of hand very quickly. In any case, it should be easy for Alabama to get this win under their belt with another huge offensive performance and advance to the national championship game.
Clemson 30-27 Ohio State 
Allstate Sugar Bowl – Friday, 8:00 PM, ESPN
This is the big one. The third playoff matchup in three years between these two college football Goliaths. Of the two semifinals, this is undoubtedly the more interesting matchup for obvious reasons. It has been just over a year since Clemson ended Ohio State’s season in heartbreaking fashion in last year’s semifinal game at the Fiesta Bowl, and after a long offseason, it’s safe to say that neither the fans nor the Buckeyes themselves have forgotten about what happened. Many OSU fans still think about the first meeting between these teams in the CFP back in 2016, when the Tigers blanked the Bucks 31-0. It’s safe to say that Clemson has given Ohio State plenty of reason to hate them. Clemson HC Dabo Swinney has also given the Bucks plenty of bulletin board material, continuously criticizing them for only playing 6 games and even ranking them at 11th overall in his latest Coaches Poll ballot. There’s plenty of bad blood between these programs, and it’s safe to say that both teams will be very fired up heading into this game in New Orleans on Friday night.
Clemson has been here so many times that this is practically just another game for them. This is the 6th straight trip to the Playoff for the Tigers coming off of their 6th straight ACC championship. Of those 6 trips, this is now the 3rd time that they’ll face off with Ohio State in the semis, with all 3 being the 2v3 games. In fact, every time the Tigers haven’t been the #1 seed, they’ve had to face off with the Buckeyes. Ever since their lone loss to Notre Dame in early November, this team has been on fire, and they are easily playing their best football of the season right now. They put on a virtuoso on both sides of the football in the ACC Championship Game against the Irish, and they honestly look unstoppable. QB Trevor Lawrence, who is likely playing his final games in a Clemson uniform, still looks nothing short of generational in every game, and it will be a very tall task for the Buckeyes to stop him, which they’ve already struggled with before.
It’s been a bumpy road for Ohio State, who saw 3 of their 8 regular season games cancelled due to COVID-19 and needed help from the powers that be in the Big Ten to even compete for a conference title. They did, and they edged Northwestern thanks to an incredible running offense to win their 4th straight conference championship. Almost nobody is giving them a chance to win this game, which isn’t completely asinine given the way the Tigers have looked lately vs. the weird way that QB Justin Fields and the Ohio State offense has struggled. The Buckeyes defense has also been a bit of a question mark, giving up a lot of big plays, but they’ve only given up 10.5 PPG in their last 2 games, which inspires a decent amount of faith. Moreover, this is a playoff game, and I have no doubt that HC Ryan Day will do everything he can to get his team ready to compete and play a great game all across the board.
Fields’ struggles are undoubtedly an area of concern for this Buckeyes offense. His turnover problem has been egregiously bad, with every interception thrown being absolutely inexcusable. Now, Fields has to face off with a Tigers defense that picked him off twice in last year’s semifinal game. It’s a big ask for Fields, which is why the run game will be absolutely imperative. That run game has found new life with the late emergence of graduate transfer RB Trey Sermon, who set a program record with an unprecedented 331 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns on 29 carries in the B1G title game. If Sermon, and fellow RB Master Teague III, can continue to put up huge numbers, it will help the passing offense tremendously by allowing Fields to operate with a bit of a cushion, where he has proven to be so dangerous. However, if Ohio State’s potent run game gets shut down by Clemson’s impressive front seven, then it could be a long day for the Bucks offense. This is 100% the biggest area in the game, and it’s where it will be either won or lost by one of these teams.
I certainly think this game will be close throughout, with it being a back-and-forth affair seeing both teams do incredible things. Both of these teams have so much talent on both sides of the football, and this game has all the ingredients to be even better than last year’s classic. It really wouldn’t shock me if this game goes either way. In a huge spot like this, I have to roll with the team that’s proven themselves time and time again, and that’s the Clemson Tigers. They have just been so dominant, and they’ve already shown what they can do in the CFP. I think Ohio State will give them a hell of a run on the back of their offense, but a combination of their defensive struggles and the talent of Clemson’s offense will be their downfall. Trevor Lawrence has been here before, and I expect him to lead his team to victory in the end once again. Again, it wouldn’t shock me as much as other people to see Ohio State come out of here with a win, and I would absolutely love to see it, but I just don’t have it in me to pick against Clemson. In any case, this game should be an absolute blast, and while I’m extremely nervous, I cannot wait to see it unfold in NOLA.
All stats taken from ESPN.
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