By Will Vandervort.
ORLANDO, Fla. — When Brent Venables looks at his old team, the Oklahoma Sooners, he doesn’t see an 8-4 football team. Instead, he sees an 11-1 team that has had some unfortunate breaks in losses to TCU, Kansas State and Oklahoma State.
In those three games, the Sooners lost by a combined total of eight points.
“Our guys are focused and are excited about the challenge,” Clemson’s defensive coordinator said. “They recognize that this is a team we are getting ready to play that is literally a couple of plays or a couple of breaks from being in the (College Football) Playoff.”
The 17th-ranked Tigers will have their last practice of the season today as they prepare to play No. 24 Oklahoma in the Russell Athletic Bowl on Monday here in Orlando, Fla. The game is set to kick off 5:30 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN.
The Sooners’ four losses this season have come to TCU, Kansas State, Baylor and Oklahoma State. The Baylor game was the only defeat in which they lost by more than four points, however, they did lose starting quarterback Trevor Knight and their No. 1 wide receiver Sterling Shepard in the game. Both are expected to play against Clemson on Monday after missing the last three games of the regular season.
In Oklahoma’s other three losses, it lost a four-point game to TCU (37-33), a one-point game to Kansas State (31-30) and a three-point loss in overtime to archrival Oklahoma State (38-35).
“If the field goal kicker makes a couple of chip-shots, whether it is the extra point or the field goal, there in the Kansas State game or they don’t have that turnover in the TCU game, then there’s the decision in the kicking game against Oklahoma State, they should be 11-1,” Venables said. “The talent is there. Everybody picked this team to compete for the national championship.”
The Sooners (8-4) play like a team that is competing for a national championship, especially on offense. Oklahoma ranks ninth in rushing offense (268.6), 11th in scoring (38.9) and 20th in total offense (480.5). Running back Samaje Perine ranks eighth nationally in rushing yards with 1,579 yards and seventh in rushing touchdowns with 21.
Clemson’s running backs combined have just 19 rushing touchdowns.
The Tigers (9-3) lead the nation in total defense and will attempt to slow Perine and the Sooners down.
“Our guys have been incredibly focused,” Venables said. “I don’t know if we have had a bad practice since we started our preparation to be honest with you. I’m not saying they are all ready to kill somebody every day, but at the same time our guys have been focused and we haven’t had to pull teeth to get these guys to come to work every day.
“I know this, they are excited and they have great respect for the opponent and recognize what we are going to have to do as a football team to have a chance to win.”
ACC grand slam. Venables’ Clemson defense leads the ACC in a number of defensive categories, including scoring defense (17.6), total defense (259.6) and pass efficiency defense (97.7). The Tigers are third in the ACC in rushing defense.
No Clemson team has ever led the ACC in all four major categories in the same year. Just three ACC teams have led the conference in scoring, total, rushing and passing defense in the same year. Florida State has done it five times, while North Carolina, Maryland and South Carolina have done it once. The Gamecocks were the first team to accomplish this feat in 1957, while the Seminoles were the last to do it in 2012.