THE PERTINENT INFO
When: Monday, January 11, 2021
Where: Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, FL
TV: 8:15 // ESPN
Announcers: Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Maria Taylor and Tom Rinaldi
This will be the fourth time Ohio State and Alabama have faced each other in football. It will be the fifth time the Buckeyes (2–2) have played in an NCAA football title game.
The Scarlet and Gray are 1–3 all-time against Alabama. The victory was the 42-35 shocker in the 2015 Sugar Bowl.
Last week, Nick Saban's team walked over No. 4 Notre Dame, 31-14, in the Rose Bowl.
Below, you will find some interesting facts about the teams, key offensive player stats, coach information, and team stats.
THE LAST TIME...
- Ohio State played Alabama, the Scarlet and Gray marched through the south 42-35.
- The Buckeyes played in the CFP national championship...Ohio State beat Oregon 42-20.
- Ohio State played on January 11th was...never.
- The Scarlet and Gray lost the eighth game of the season was Oct. 20, 2018. Unranked Purdue pulled off the 49-20 dismantling of No. 2 Ohio State in Ross-Ade Stadium.
- An Ohio State quarterback threw for over 300 yards in a CFP contest was last week. Justin Fields completed 22 of 28 passes for 385 yards and 6 touchdowns to break the program's bowl record for yards and touchdown passes.
ON THE HORIZON
- A victory will give the Buckeyes their ninth national title.
- Ohio State is playing in its fifth championship game in 19 years.
- The Scarlet and Gray's single-season record for receiving yards per game is David Boston's 119.5 in 1998. Chris Olave is currently averaging 110.0 yards in the six games he has played in.
- Olave is two touchdown catches away from tying Brian Robiskie (24) for fifth on the all-time career touchdown list.
- The program is currently 26–26* in bowl games. A victory will put the Buckeyes over the .500 mark for the first time since since defeating Texas A&M in the 1987 Cotton Bowl.
- A win on Monday will be Ohio State's 944th* all-time.
LET'S GO STREAKING
- Ohio State has won seven consecutive games.
- Ryan Day is 16–0 against Big Ten opponents.
- The Buckeyes have won four straight Big Ten Titles...and 11 since 2002.
*NCAA sanctions be damned, The 2010 season happened and Ohio State beat Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl.
University of Alabama
GET TO KNOW ALABAMA
- Alabama is located in Tuscaloosa, AL.
- The university was established in 1820, but was not open to students until 1831.
- The Crimson Tide is in its 126th season of playing football.
- Big Al is the name of Alabama's mascot. The program's tie to an elephant came from sports reporter Everett Strupper. In 1930, he described the Crimson Tide football team in this manner, "At the end of the quarter, the earth started to tremble, there was a distant rumble that continued to grow. Some excited fan in the stands bellowed, 'Hold your horses, the elephants are coming!' and out stamped this Alabama varsity." Big Al made his debut in the 1980 Sugar Bowl. At some events, Big Al is joined by a female elephant named Big Alice.
- Alabama has won 32 conference titles (28 SEC and 4 Southern).
- The program claims 17 national titles.
- Notable alumni are Harper Lee (Author, To Kill a Mockingbird), Mel Allen (Yankees Broadcaster), Jim Nabors (Gomer Pyle), Jimmy Wales (co-founder of Wikipedia), Rece Davis (ESPN), Robert Horry (7x NBA champ), Joe Namath (NFL Hall of Fame), Bart Starr (NFL Hall of Fame), Derrick Thomas (NFL Hall of Fame), Justin Thomas (PGA) Sela Ward (actress)
TODAY'S TRIVIA QUESTIONS:
- When was the last time Ohio State won a game in Miami/Miami Gardens?
- Can you name the only B1G team to defeat Alabama with Nick Saban as coach?
- In the 21 games Fields has played for Ohio State, how many times did he not throw at least 2 touchdown passes in a game?
- Between 1986 and 2014, the Buckeyes played teams from the SEC 14 times. How many wins did Ohio State have?
Answers at the bottom of today's article.
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| OFFENSIVE LEADERS | ||||
| JUSTIN FIELDS | 272.3 YDS // 3.0 TD // 0.9 INT | PASSING | MAC JONES | 336.3 YDS // 3.0 TD // 0.3 INT |
| TREY SERMON | 124.0 YDS // 7.5 YPC // 0.6 TD | RUSHING | NAJEE HARRIS | 115.6 YDS // 6.1 YPC // 2.0 TD |
| CHRIS OLAVE | 110.0 YDS // 15.7 YPR // 1.2 TD | RECEIVING | DeVONTA SMITH | 136.8 YDS // 15.6 YPR // 1.7 TD |
| DEFENSIVE LEADERS | ||||
| PETE WERNER | 6.6 | TACKLES | CHRISTIAN HARRIS | 6.1 |
| JONATHON COOPER | 0.5 | SACKS | WILL ANDERSON /// CHRISTIAN BARMORE | 0.6 |
| SHAUN WADE | 0.3 | INTERCEPTIONS | MALACHI MOORE | 0.3 |
| SPECIAL TEAMS | ||||
| GARRETT WILSON | 8.0 | PUNT RETURNER | DEVONTA SMITH | 24.3 |
| DEMARIO McCALL | 15.6 | KICKOFF RETURN | JAHLEEL BILLINGSLEY | 20.5 |
| DRUE CHRISMAN | 45.5 | PUNTING | CHARLIE SCOTT | 39.3 |
| 4 | EDGE | 6 | ||
THE COACHES
Ryan Day
- 23–1 (.958) at Ohio State
- 23–1 (.958) overall
Day's hometown is Manchester, NH. He attended Manchester High School and attended college at New Hampshire. Day has been in coaching for 19 years and is Ohio State's 25th head coach.
Last season, Ryan Day and the Buckeyes outscored their opponents 656-192. That is an average victory of 47-14.
After 24 games with Day as head coach, Ohio State is beating teams by an average score of 45-17. He has the program record for points scored after his first 24 games with 1,077. The Buckeyes are outscoring their opponents by a whopping 681 points under Day.
Ryan Day and Urban Meyer are the only coaches in program history to start their careers with 16 straight consecutive victories. Meyer won 24 straight between 2012 and 2013.
Nick Saban
- 164–23 (.877) at Alabama (14th year)
- 255–65–1 (.794) overall as a college head coach (25th year)
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7–1 (.875) against Big Ten opponents at Alabama.
Saban was born in Fairmont, WV. He played quarterback for Monongah High School and won the West Virginia state championship. Saban was a defensive back at Kent State and was on campus during the infamous shooting. Following his graduation in 1973, Don James hired Saban as a graduate assistant for the Flashes.
Over the next 15 years, Saban was an assistant coach for six different colleges – including Syracuse, West Virginia and Ohio State – and the Houston Oilers. In 1990, the University of Toledo gave Saban his start as a head coach. Led by Saban, and their stud quarterback Kevin Meger, the Rockets finished the year as co-champions of the Mid-American Conference.
An interesting side note is that a young coach named Urban Meyer applied to be on the Rockets' staff during that season and Saban denied him.
Following the successful season in Toledo, the Cleveland Browns hired Saban as defensive coordinator where he remained for four years. In 1995, he signed on with Michigan State where he shocked the No. 1 ranked Buckeyes in 1998. Not to be outdone, Saban and the Spartans defeated Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Penn State in 1999. After defeating Penn State, Saban announced his resignation and bolted for LSU.
In five seasons in Baton Rouge, Saban guided the Tigers to a 48–16 record and a shared national title in the 2003 season. In December of 2004, the Miami Dolphins hired him as head coach. The tenure in south Florida ended after Saban had his first losing season as a head coach in 2006.
Following denials from Saban in late December of 2006 about being the next head coach at Alabama, the Crimson Tide announced the hiring of Saban on January 3, 2007. His first season in Tuscaloosa ended with a 7–6 record that has since been amended to 2–6 due to NCAA violations.
The championship train began in the 2009 season when Alabama defeated Texas in the 2010 BCS National Championship Game. That Tide won two more titles in following the 2011 and 2012 seasons. In all, Saban has coached in seven national championship games and won the title in five of them. If Alabama loses to Ohio State, it will mark the first time for Saban to lose in back-to-back national championship games.
CLIFF CLAVEN'S LITTLE KNOWN FACTS CORNER
- 1.......CFP titles won by Ohio State.
- 2.......seasons the Buckeyes have finished with an 8–0 record (1961, 1917).
- 3.......defensive scores for Ohio State.
- 4.......Fields touchdowns in the first half against Clemson.
- 5.......rushing TDs for Fields this season.
- 6.......Fields INTs in the last four games.
- 7.......years until Ohio State and Alabama play a home-and-home series.
- 8.......number of Buckeye national titles.
- 9.......for the first time since 1961, Ohio State will not play in at least nine games.
- 10.....the Bucks are 8–2 overall and ATS the last ten times as an underdog.
- 11.....combined title games played by the Buckeyes (4) and the Crimson Tide (7).
- 12.....games in which Justin Fields has rushed and passed for a touchdown.
- 16.....sacks recorded by Ohio State's defense in eight games.
- 18.....straight wins for the Buckeyes over Big Ten AP ranked opponents.
- 20.....career touchdown receptions for Chris Olave, sixth all-time at OSU.
- 21.....consecutive conference wins for Ohio State.
- 22.....career touchdowns for Chris Olave.
- 23.....consecutive regular-season wins for the Scarlet and Gray.
- 25.....official bowl wins for Ohio State (we know it's 26).
- 35.....victories for the Buckeyes when GameDay is at the game.
- 36.....true road game victories for the Scarlet and Gray since 2012.
- 39.....the number of Big Ten titles the football team has won.
- 46.....returning letterman are on the 2020 roster.
- 49.....number of times Ohio State has been at the site of College GameDay.
- 51.....official bowl game appearances for the Buckeyes (we know it's 52).
- 55.....yards Sevyn Banks ran on his scoop and score against Nebraska.
- 58.....B1G wins for the Scarlet and Gray since 2014.
- 84.....Buckeyes selected in the first round of the NFL Draft.
- 88.....consensus All-Americans.
- 99.....seasons the Scarlet and Gray have played in Ohio Stadium.
- 103...times Ohio State has played in a night game.
- 151...the number of years The Ohio State University has been in the education business.
- 215...career tackles for Tuf Borland.
- 272...OSU's average passing yards per game...school record for a season is 273.2 (1981).
- 300...Fields has thrown for over 300 yards in four of the past seven games.
- 331...Sermon rushing yards against Northwestern.
- 427...total yards by Fields against Clemson, a career high.
- 460...victories for the Buckeyes in Ohio Stadium.
- 627...offensive TDs by the Scarlet and Gray since 2012.
- 909...times Ohio State has been ranked in the AP poll.
- 931...number of official wins for the program (we know it's actually 943).
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| OFFENSE | ||||
| 43.4 | 5th | POINTS FOR | 48.2 | 2nd |
| 272.6 | 5th | RUSHING OFFENSE | 185.7 | 46th |
| 272.3 | 31st | PASSING OFFENSE | 349.3 | 5th |
| 544.9 | 4th | TOTAL OFFENSE | 535.0 | 6th |
| .500 | 6th | 3rd DOWNS | .593 | 1st |
| .769 | 100th | RED ZONE | .919 | 9th |
| DEFENSE | ||||
| 22.0 | 31st | POINTS ALLOWED | 19.0 | 13th |
| 89.1 | 2nd | RUSH DEFENSE | 110.2 | 13th |
| 281.1 | 116th | PASS DEFENSE | 242.9 | 79th |
| 133.1 | 57th | PASS EFFICIENCY DEFENSE | 120.0 | 19th |
| 370.3 | 41st | TOTAL DEFENSE | 353.2 | 32nd |
| .351 | 25th | 3rd DOWNS | .414 | 76th |
| .826 | 54th | RED ZONE | .735 | 15th |
| SPECIAL TEAMS | ||||
| 6.6 | 71st | PUNT RETURN | 15.6 | 9th |
| 13.3 | 126th | KICKOFF RETURN | 16.4 | 119th |
| 40.0 | 37th | NET PUNTING | 35.4 | 106th |
| MISCELLANEOUS | ||||
| +1.3 | 3rd | TURNOVER MARGIN | +0.9 | 13th |
| 6.4 | 82nd | PENALTIES | 6.0 | 62nd |
| 6 | EDGE | 12 | ||
TODAY'S TRIVIA ANSWERS
When was the last time Ohio State won a game in Miami/Miami Gardens?
Answer: 1977. The Buckeyes defeated Colorado, 27-10, in the '77 Orange Bowl.
Can you name the only B1G team to defeat Alabama with Nick Saban as coach?
Answer: Ohio State. The Buckeyes beat the Crimson Tide, 42-35, in the 2015 Sugar Bowl.
In the 21 games Fields has played for Ohio State, how many times did he not throw at least 2 touchdown passes in a game?
Answer: Twice. In the "loss" to Clemson in the 2020 Fiesta Bowl, Fields threw for one touchdown. The Wildcats kept Fields from throwing a TD pass in the 2020 B1G title game.
Between 1986 and 2014, the Buckeyes played teams from the SEC 14 times. How many wins did Ohio State have?
Answer: Three. The Buckeyes defeated LSU in 1988, Arkansas in 2011 and Alabama in 2015.
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