GLENDALE, Ariz. — Though tongue-in-cheek when it was asked, it did not take a member of the media too long following second-ranked Clemson’s 31-0 rout of No. 3 Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl to ask safety Jadar Johnson about Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts.
“Why are you setting me up, man,” Johnson asked back while laughing. “You are going to get me in trouble. Coach (Brent Venables) has already told me not to say anything about him. I’m not saying anything about their quarterback.
“We will see them in Tampa.”
The Tigers (13-1) will see Alabama in Tampa for the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, thanks to a suffocating performance by Johnson and the defense. Johnson said earlier in the week he did not think Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett was one of the best quarterbacks on Clemson’s schedule.
Saturday’s game proved he was right.
Barrett was harassed by Clemson’s defensive line all night. He threw for just 127 yards, despite throwing the ball 33 times. Though he completed 19 passes, Barrett was also picked off two times, sacked three times and rushed for minus-two yards on 11 carries.
“That’s what teammates are for,” Clemson linebacker Dorian O’Daniel said. “He said what he said, and he felt confident about it when he said it. He could not take it back. He knew he was going to have to back it up. We were not going to leave him out there to dry. We are teammates. We are family and that’s what brothers are for.”
Johnson finished the game with four tackles from his strong safety position, but his teammates knocked down four of Barrett’s passes, while Cordrea Tankersley and Van Smith each grabbed an interception. Clemson’s Kendall Joseph also forced a fumble, which was recovered by Christian Wilkins.
“If you are going to talk big, you have to play big,” Boulware said. “He did that tonight. Everybody on our backend, the front four guys … I think Kendall and I were very consistent just managing and directing everybody in the traffic.
“I think in all three levels, it was a very dominating performance.”
It was a dominating performance by the Clemson defense. Ohio State netted a season-low 215 total yards and had just nine first downs the entire game.
The Buckeyes (11-2) averaged 258.6 yards per game coming into the Fiesta Bowl, but on Saturday they averaged just 3.8 yards per carry and never really got anything going consistently. They never ran a play inside Clemson’s 20-yard line, while the two interceptions came at the one-yard line and in the end zone.
How bad was it? It marked the first-time an Urban Myer coached team has been shut out, and the first time since 1993 Ohio State was shut out in a game. It was also the first time the Buckeyes experienced being shut out in a bowl game since the 1920 Rose Bowl.
“We knew we could come out and have an excellent game like that, we just had to do it. We put it all out there on the field tonight and we put a goose egg up,” Johnson said. “That’s what it is all about. Coach V gave us a great game plan. Ben got us together. He is really the leader of this defense. I give so much credit to Ben. Then, when we came out here, he got us together, made us stay focused, no matter what kind of extracurricular activity that we were doing. We came out here and did our thing.”
What they did, was back Johnson up.
–Photo Credit: David Kadlubowski/The Arizona Republic via USA TODAY Sports