Clemson vs. Oklahoma - What do I know?

Deshaun Watson and Baker Mayfield add a new level of intrigue
to the Clemson-Oklahoma matchup.

I feel like I can legitimately say that I am one of very few people who sat and watched every Clemson and Oklahoma football game this season. As a reminder, I'm a Clemson grad and fanatic, and my wife is an OU grad and fanatic. Point here is, we've seen pretty much every snap of every game by both teams, and over the coming week and a half, I will be providing as much insight to the Capital One Orange Bowl as I can.

I'll start with this: Pretend Clemson and Oklahoma did not play each other last year. These two squads are completely different. For the Tigers, Deshaun Watson leads the charge and he didn't play in last year's bowl game against the Sooners as he was recovering from ACL surgery. Clemson also has several freshman impact players on the offensive side of the ball that were high school seniors last December. On defense, the Tigers lost eight starting players from the unit that played against OU.

For the Sooners, a new offensive coordinator and scheme are in place. Lincoln Riley brought the Air Raid offense back to Norman. Walk-on Baker Mayfield has orchestrated Riley's offense to near perfection with the help of a renewed running game behind returning power back Samaje Perine and new addition Joe Mixon.

The starting lineups at the Orange Bowl will look much different than those at the Russell Athletic Bowl. Of course, two teams with a combined 24-1 record don't resemble the three- and four-loss teams that showed up to Orlando.

This game has a completely different feel. The only similarities are the colors, logos, and head coaches. Most everything else has changed. Yes, the OU players who were on the sidelines in 2014 will want final revenge on a team they lost to a season ago (Oklahoma has defeated the other four teams it lost two last year). Yes, there will be a few of the same playmakers on both sides of the ball playing against each other for the second time.

But don't expect anything close to what happened in last year's 40-6 Clemson win. Don't look to last year to try and figure out what might happen this year.

This one will be fun.

-BtW