Ohio State Football: Keep talking Dabo, Buckeyes are coming for you

The Ohio State football team will take on the Clemson Tigers in the national semi-final game on New Year’s Day. Let’s hope Dabo keeps talking.

The Ohio State football team wants Clemson. Bad. And that is exactly what they are getting when they meet up in the national semi-final.

After out-playing Clemson in last year’s matchup and getting absolutely jobbed by bad luck and bad officiating, these Ohio State Buckeyes’ look forward to proving the doubters wrong.

One of the most out-spoken doubters is Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, who keeps giving Ohio State motivation on a weekly basis. It was just last week that Swinney said:

"“We feel like we’re definitely one of the best four teams in the country, and there’s nothing that’s going to happen in that game next week for Clemson or Notre Dame that’s going to change that,” he said in an interview on “The Rich Eisen Show,” later adding, “If I was on a committee, it would be hard for me to leave out a 10-1 Texas A&M or a 11-game Florida team over a team that’s played six games.”"

That’s the sort of foot-in-the-mouth big talk we expect out of Dabo now. And right on queue, he offered up this nugget last night after Clemson crushed Notre Dame, via Irish Wire:

"“Absolutely Notre Dame deserves to be in because they’re daggum 10-1, They played 11 games and twice stepped in the ring with Clemson,” Sweeney said after Saturday’s game, “No way would I punish someone for playing more games.”"

Again, Swinney is taking a jab at Ohio State for only playing six games. As noted before, it seems as if Dabo values playing football games more than he values the health and safety of college football players.

But furthermore, he keeps adding fuel to the fire for an Ohio State squad that already wants to play Clemson. Keep the motivation up Dabo, it seems to be working.

Buckeye head coach Ryan Day had this to say two weeks ago after the Michigan State game, from cleveland.com:

"“We’ve had disappointments. We’ve had games canceled. We’ve had the season canceled. We went through so much,” Day said. “Yet to see us play the way we did against Michigan State, and know our best football is still ahead of us — and we have really talented young men who stuck together. If some people can’t see that, then that’s their problem.”"

That’s exactly what you want to hear out of Day. Rest assured, this Ohio State team has taken note of all the shade that Swinney has thrown their way. Expect a hungry Buckeye team to take the field when they meet up with Clemson on New Year’s Day.