After Ohio State destroyed Clemson 49-28 in the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Friday, Tigers coach Dabo Swinney was ready to be asked about his ranking of the team.
However, the beatdown did not sway him one bit. The Clemson head coach took major criticism for rating Ohio State 11th getting into the playoff, a call he stated he made solely as a result of Buckeyes’ playing in only six games.
“I don’t regret any of that, and polls have nothing to do with motivation,” Swinney stated. “Both teams were highly motivated to play.”
Swinney downplayed any notion that Ohio State had added motivation to win:
“They’re a great team,” Swinney stated. “[The ranking] had nothing to do with Ohio State. I said they were good enough to beat us, good enough to win the whole dang thing. But I didn’t think anybody that didn’t play at least nine games, in my poll, that I wasn’t going to put them in the top 10. So I wasn’t going to change that just because there was a chance we could play them. So I don’t have any regret about that. Only thing I regret is obviously not doing a good enough job getting my team ready. But I don’t regret anything about that at all.”
