Ohio State Football: Epic Fiesta Bowl tributes CFB’s 150th season

The Ohio State football team and Clemson Tigers gave the college football world what they deserved last night with an instant classic in the Fiesta Bowl.

Sports are so beloved because you can’t script them. College football separates itself from others because of the raw emotion, tradition and pageantry. The epic Fiesta Bowl between Ohio State and Clemson proved all the hype to be true and unfolded like a celebration honoring the past, present, and future of the game.

The two most complete teams in the country delivered massive punches one after the other to each other for sixty minutes. It was a battle between two heavyweights in the desert.

However, the one asterisk of this game will forever be the officiating. When a game of this magnitude is unfolding in the manner it was the referees just need to let the teams play. No one wants to remember a game based on officiating.

There are many plays in a football game, but after last night, people will remember the atrocious calls with minimal reasoning that were made. What was Shaun Wade supposed to do coming at full speed while Trevor Lawrence ducked in the closing seconds?

It’s a football play, but moving passed that call to the roughing the kicker. There was no intentional forcible contact to the punter, but only momentum that knocked him over. It should have been running into the kicker which is a five yard penalty.

Lastly, not to be on a soap box, but the fumble returned for a touchdown by Jordan Fuller should have stood on the field. The original call was a catch and there was no indisputable video evidence to overturn the play regardless of the call on the field.

The refs made themselves the spectacle and took away from what could’ve finished as an even better game than what we got last night.

Despite all of those mistakes and bad calls, the Buckeyes still had a chance to win the game in the final minute, but came up short. The Fiesta Bowl was still an all time classic football game paying homage to college football’s 150th season.

It featured an elite coaching staff on both sides and two elite quarterbacks that will lead next year’s Heisman campaign who are surrounded by some of the best weapons in the country. While defensively, they are two of the best as well.

The game was a chess match that Ohio State lost more than Clemson won, but what ifs don’t define a football game the plays do. In the end, Clemson capitalized more than Ohio State and the biggest key to the game was the red zone defense of the Tigers.

They held the Buckeyes to three field goals and forced a turnover and that is never a recipe for a victory. Moreover, despite all of that, Ohio State still had the chance to win which is a testament to how truly talented and special this team was in 2019.

The game inside State Farm Stadium last night was among the best of the season and definitely the more exciting and intense semifinal. Coaches, players, and fans alike could barely breathe for almost four hours with the first exhales coming after the final interception.

Rushing excitement engulfed Clemson while shocking disappointment and a stone cold, stunned faces overtook Ohio State. But in the end, this game was a virtual tribute to what college football is today.

The Fiesta Bowl featured everything with drama leading the way. A chess match between coaches, punishing blows constantly delivered by the players going back and forth, and then the magnified effects of the new rule book were all on display last night.

The Fiesta Bowl encapsulated everything important in modern college football into a four hour window. Ohio State vs. Clemson will not soon be forgotten as both teams showed the heart of a champion.

But in the end, one of them had to accept defeat. And in Ohio State’s case, under the circumstance, get their souls crushed.

Thank you, college football, you never disappoint. Even though you do. Now onto 2020 and a fresh decade of our most beloved sport.