MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — What do Clemson and Texas have in common?

Among other things: They’re the only teams to beat Oklahoma in 2015. Texas won the Red River Showdown in October, 24-17. Clemson won the Orange Bowl on Thursday night, 37-17.

The Tigers and Longhorns also held the Sooners to 67 yards rushing.

“Not allowing them to run the ball,” Brent Venables said, “I think that was the secret sauce tonight…we sold out to stop the run.”

Semaje Perine entered the College Football Playoff with 1,291 yards and 15 touchdowns. Clemson held him to 58 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries.

Joe Mixon, Perine’s running-mate, had 749 yards and seven scores. He rushed for four yards against the Tigers.

Both were banged up in the second half. Perine went down with an ankle injury in the third quarter. He returned after Joe Mixon was knocked out with a concussion.

“Tonight, we showed what we haven’t showed here in the second half this year — that bite down mentality and closing an opponent out, and showing some toughness and focus like we needed to — tasting the blood in the water,” Venables said. “We’re fortunate that some of their key guys were banged up. That probably kept some of their big play potential out of the game and limited them.

“Our guys really got better as that game went on.”

Austin Bryant was no exception. The freshman defensive end was pulled into serious action when Shaq Lawson went down in the first quarter with a knee injury.

“You’re never expecting somebody to get hurt, but you’ve got to be ready, because you never know when your number is going to be called,” Bryant said. “The worst thing you can do is have your opportunity come and not be ready.”

Bryant, picked up right where Lawson left off, with four tackles and a 1/2 sack.

“He didn’t (try to) do too much. He was just basically doing his job,” Lawson said. “He made plays.”

Lawson was productive in his handful of snaps. On the first play of the game, he sacked Baker Mayfield.

“I was starting off feeling good, starting off like I felt I was about to have three sacks on them,” Lawson said.

The injury relegated him to sideline duty for the remainder of the evening.

“I knew what I had to do. I was leading my team on the sideline. That’s what I did. I kept encouraging them,” Lawson said. “When you’re not in the game, you can see a lot from the sideline. Basically, I was just telling them different reads, pick up their pass reads. It was great, learning from a different side, a view of not playing the game.”

It wasn’t all good, for all four quarters. Mayfield threw for 226 yards and a touchdown in the first half, before finishing the game with 311 yards and two interceptions.

“We were just aggressive. We knew they didn’t face an aggressive defense like us. We were going to be aggressive with them. We attacked them. We stayed on Baker Mayfield all night, had him running for his life.”

Kevin Dodd had one of the five sacks.

“We knew he hadn’t been hit as much and we knew our front seven was going to get after him and challenge him a little bit,” Dodd said. “As much as we hit him, when you hit them enough, they become inaccurate and get antsy and want to leave and escape the pocket. If he can make a good throw on the run, hats off to
him, but we didn’t want him sitting in the pocket delivering throws.”

Mission accomplished.