College Football Notebook: 1st Round Recap

The opening round of the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff is in the books, and it was marked by decisive wins for home teams. Here’s the rundown:

Notre Dame 27 Indiana 17
A good Irish defense rendered a potent Hoosier passing game impotent. Kurtis O’Rourke’s final passing numbers for IU are pedestrian—20/33 for 215 yards with an interception. But in reality, they’re even worse. Those numbers got padded after the score was 27-3 in the fourth quarter, and the pick was a bad one in the red zone early on when Indiana could have established some early momentum.

In the meantime, Notre Dame controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides, outrushing IU 193-63, including a 98-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. Riley Leonard played efficient football—completing 23/32 passes, even if they only went for 201 yards. And his one interception was a bad break on a batted ball, and he was immediately bailed out by O’Rourke’s subsequent interception.

Penn State 38 SMU 10
In the preview of these games, this space opined that while SMU’s Kevin Jennings was a good quarterback, he was stepping into a situation tailor-made for mistakes. He threw three interceptions. All were in the first half. The first two were Pick-6s, that opened the scoring, and the Lions never looked back.

Penn State got 189 yards on the ground, with both Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen having good games. SMU could do nothing in the running game, something that contributed to Jennings’ problems. Even in a game where they immediately dug a deep hole, the Mustangs still ran the ball 36 times compared to 40 for the Lions. But SMU only gained 58 yards. In spite of a mediocre showing from PSU quarterback Drew Allar, this game was never in doubt.

Texas 38 Clemson 24
Another case of the home favorite just muscling up. Texas won rush yardage 292-76, with both Tre Wisner and Jaydon Blue having big afternoons. The final data shows quarterback Quinn Ewers did everything well—17/24 for 202 yards. But that doesn’t account for a terrible throw on what should have an easy fourth-down conversion when this was still a game. Nor does it account for a long ball he completed, but was underthrown and prevented a long TD pass.

By contrast, Cade Klubnik’s numbers for Clemson could be interpreted as erratic, with 26/43. But Klubnik, playing in a deep hole by the second quarter, had all the pressure on him. He threw for 336 yards. He brought his team from 31-10 down to within 31-24 in the fourth quarter. I thought he acquitted himself well trying to singlehandledly beat a good all-around team. Klubnik just doesn’t have the same kind of supporting cast his championship predecessors, DeShaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence, had.

Ohio State 42 Tennessee 17
This was supposed to be the best game of the first round. Instead it was a thorough beatdown. This one didn’t happen in the line of scrimmage—rushing yardage was reasonably even, and that’s even with Vols runner Dylan Sampson having to deal with a hamstring injury. But the Buckeyes pass defense dominated, and their own passing attack did whatever they wanted.

OSU quarterback Will Howard was razor-sharp, going 24/29 for 311 yards. He routinely got the ball downfield and to the outside, an area there was concern about the Buckeyes’ ability to win on. Conversely, Nico Imaveala had as about as bad a night as one can imagine—14/31 for 104 yards adds up to 3.4 yards-per-attempt. You have to work really hard to generate that little per pass. The blame can’t fall entirely on Nico, but his numbers underscore what an awful night it was for the entire Volunteer passing game.

We can now look forward to the following matchups in the quarterfinals, all on ESPN:

Tuesday, December 31
Penn State – Boise State (Fiesta Bowl, 7:30 PM ET)

Wednesday, January 1
Texas – Arizona State (Peach Bowl, 1 PM ET)
Ohio State – Oregon (Rose Bowl, 5 PM ET)
Notre Dame – Georgia (Sugar Bowl, 8:45 PM ET)

We’ll be back in this space by Monday or early Tuesday to preview those games.