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SPORTS Saturday, December 29, 2018 East Oregonian B3 Alabama set for Oklahoma, with a title-game berth at stake By TIM REYNOLDS Associated Press MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Nick Saban knows Alabama cannot win every game. The Crimson Tide merely come close. This is the fifth year of the Col- lege Foot- ball Playoff, and the fifth Alabama Saban appearance in the four-team tournament to decide the national cham- pion. The latest quest toward another title, which would be the school’s third in the last four years, resumes Sat- urday when the top-ranked Crimson Tide (13-0) take on fourth-ranked Oklahoma (12-1) in the semifinals at the Orange Bowl. “It’s a good problem to have,” said Oklahoma quar- terback Kyler Murray, the Heisman Trophy winner. “They win a lot. We win a lot. ... I’ve heard a lot of peo- ple say ‘beat Alabama’ just because they don’t like Ala- bama or whatever. But I’m not really too much into that.” The game is a matchup between the two high- est-scoring offenses in the country, with Oklahoma AP Photo/Brynn Anderson Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley, right, talks with Oklahoma offensive lineman Ben Powers during an NCAA college football practice on Thursday in Davie, Fla. slightly outpacing Alabama there. It’s also a matchup of arguably the two best play- ers in the country; Mur- ray and Alabama quarter- back Tua Tagovailoa were first and second, respec- tively, in the Heisman voting. At stake is a berth in the CFP title game on Jan. 7 against either Clemson or Notre Dame. And Alabama has four players who will be appearing in their sev- enth CFP game — which is absurd, especially when con- sidering that there have been only 12 games total in the event since it was put into place starting with the 2014 season. “We know we can’t be perfect,” Saban said. “But we’re certainly trying to work every day to close the gap on how good can we be, and are we reaching our full potential in how we improve and work every day.” The edge for the Crimson Tide, on paper anyway, is on defense. Alabama comes into this game ranked fourth nationally in points allowed per game, while Oklahoma is ranked 96th. “We’ve prepared well,” said Oklahoma coach Lin- coln Riley, the 35-year-old offensive mastermind who will be coaching in his 15th bowl game already. “Con- fident in the way our team has approached this entire month. We’ve had a great week here so far. Can’t wait for Saturday night.” Here’s some other things to know going into the Orange Bowl: Record seekers Alabama and Clemson (which plays Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl on Sat- urday) both enter the CFP with a chance to go 15-0 — should either claim the national championship. And that would be truly rare air. The NCAA defines the “modern era” as starting in 1937, and no team has won more than 14 games in a sea- son during that span. The last team to go 15-0 at the top level of college football was Penn, back in 1897. Rare meeting For a couple of storied programs, Alabama and Oklahoma haven’t faced off very often. The Sooners lead the all-time series 3-1-1, and three of those matchups have been in bowl games — start- ing with the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1, 1963, a 17-0 Alabama victory. Their most recent matchup was on Jan. 2, 2014 in the Sugar Bowl, when the Sooners prevailed 45-31. Alabama is 66-5 since. Saban milestone The NCAA record books might not necessarily agree, but Saturday will mark the 300th game for Alabama’s Nick Saban as a collegiate head coach. His teams went 236-62-1 in the first 299 games, though five of those wins from the 2007 season — his first with the Crimson Tide — were later vacated by the NCAA. Happy homecomings The best receiver on each team is a South Flor- ida kid who just happens to be a first-team All-Ameri- can. Oklahoma’s Marquise Brown — he goes by “Hol- lywood,” the nod to his Hol- lywood, Florida hometown — averages 101.4 receiv- ing yards per game. Ala- bama’s Jerry Jeudy averages 84.8 yards per game; the Biletnikoff Award winner as the nation’s top receiver hails from nearby Deerfield Beach, Florida. Orange Bowl history It’s the 20th appear- ance in the Orange Bowl for Oklahoma, extending the Sooners’ record in that department. Alabama will be playing in the Orange Bowl for the ninth time. And it’s the second time the game has been part of the CFP — Clemson beat Oklahoma at the Orange Bowl in 2015, a CFP semifinal. The CFP returns to the Orange Bowl in 2021, when Hard Rock Stadium will be the site of the national championship game. Cotton Bowl: Can Notre Dame measure up to No. 2 Clemson? By RALPH D. RUSSO AP College Football Writer DALLAS — The ques- tion was about sustaining high-level success in college football and Dabo Swin- ney’s answer lasted 3 min- utes, 40 seconds. Brevity is not the Clemson coach’s strong suit. Swinney talked about how people make the pro- gram, continuity leads to consistency, and how it can’t just be about the results on the scoreboard. “It’s a holistic approach. It’s social. It’s spiritual. It’s life skills. It’s career devel- opment. It’s every area,” Swinney said Friday during the final Cotton Bowl news conference. “And I think our commitment to that has been a big reason that we’ve been able to sustain our suc- cess because I think certain types of young people have bought into that.” As Swinney talked, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly lis- tened — a joint news confer- ence with Swinney involves a lot of listening — occa- sionally nodding his head in agreement. Swinney has built the Tigers into what Notre Dame used to be and what Kelly is trying to recre- ate in South Bend, Indiana. The second-ranked Tigers (13-0) face the third- ranked Fighting Irish (12- 0) on Saturday in Notre Dame’s first College Foot- ball Playoff appearance. It is Clemson’s fourth straight. The winner will play for the national championship on Jan. 7 in Santa Clara, Cali- fornia. Clemson has played for the title twice in the past three seasons. Kelly marveled at Clem- son’s consistency under Swinney. “It’s easy to get dis- tracted,” Kelly said. “And to keep that within your culture in your program requires just to have an eye on it every single day. So his Want to Lose Weight? ability to continue to keep his program year in and year out at the top of college foot- ball requires more than just recruiting good players.” Kelly has been at Notre Dame for nine years and had the most successful run for a Fighting Irish coach since Lou Holtz, who won the school’s last national title in 1988. The only coaches who have won more games at Notre Dame than Kelly (81-34) are Hall of Famers Knute Rockne (105), Holtz (100), Ara Parseghian (95) and Frank Leahy (87). Kelly has only once been this close to a national championship and after Ala- bama beat the Irish 42-14 in the 2012 BCS championship game, Notre Dame really didn’t seem all that close in retrospect. Just two seasons ago, the Irish went 4-8 and Kelly overhauled his staff and his approach to lead- ing a team. The result was a huge turnaround to 10-3 last year. The foundation appears to be in place for the Irish to regularly contend for the playoff. Still, Kelly and his team have downplayed any talk of the Cotton Bowl being a barometer for the program. Sure, the Irish are here again on the big stage, but do they really belong? “When you go through and win week after week, you’re past measuring sticks,” Kelly said earlier this week. If Alabama is the current standard in college football, Clemson has been the only program that comes close. Read this book, and you’ll understand a lot about what makes Oregon Oregon. — Jackman Wilson, Editorial Page Editor, The Register-Guard Are you frustrated with dieting and regaining weight? Are you tired of strict or expensive diet plans that you can’t stick with? Are you ready to change behaviors that prevent weight loss? 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Call to Register 541-278-3235 “Grit and Ink” tells a story that is very worthy of being told. — Kerry Tymchuk, Executive Director, Oregon Historical Society Small-town family business history at its best. —Richard Baker, U.S. Senate Historian Emeritus NOW AVAILABLE AT IN PRINT AND eBOOK FOR KINDLE Also available from local booksellers or call 800-621-2736 2801 St. Anthony Way • Pendleton, OR. 97801 www.sahpendleton.org books.eomediagroup.com/grit-ink
