Ranking Ohio State's Fiesta Bowls Entering Playoff vs. Clemson

It's far from Ohio State's first Fiesta Bowl, and it's closer to, but still not quite, Ohio State's most consequential Fiesta Bowl, but the 8 p.m. Saturday night kickoff against Clemson in the College Football Playoff holds the promise of a classic heavyweight fight.

The Buckeyes have been a fixture in the Fiesta this century, appearing six times since winning the 2002 national championship a few days into January of 2003.

Before that year ended, OSU was back in the Fiesta's former home at Sun Devil Stadium, where it would appear for the third time in four seasons in January of 2005 before the game moved across town to the spaceship-like Arizona Cardinals stadium in Glendale.

Clemson hasn't been to the Valley of the Sun nearly as often, but it's been a fixture in the College Football Playoff this decade, making its fifth straight College Football Playoff appearance and its second straight in a Fiesta hosting a Playoff semifinal.

OSU was here for that 2016 elimination game, too, and would like to forget what transpired that night, as will be clear from this ranking -- rated by quality of game and significance in the national title picture -- of the Buckeyes' eight career Fiesta Bowl trips down through the decades.

8...No. 11 Penn State 31, No. 10 OSU 19 (1980)

The year after the Buckeyes fell one point short in the Rose Bowl against USC, costing them the national title, they wilted in the second half to lose to Penn State.

OSU fell behind when Curt Warner ran 64 yards for a Penn State touchdown on the first play from scrimmage. Art Schlichter threw three first-half touchdown passes to put his team in front, 19-7, but the Buckeyes missed the first two extra-points and never scored again.

7...No. 7 OSU 35, No. 8 Kansas State 27 (2004)

OSU dominated throughout, but allowed two late Kansas State touchdowns to imperil the win via an on-side kick. Wildcats quarterback Elle Roberson dealt with the mid-week distraction of a police investigation stemming from an incident at the team hotel, but nevertheless passed for 294 yards.

The win allowed the Buckeyes to bounce back from Jim Tressel's only loss to Michigan, a defeat that cost OSU a trip to the Rose Bowl.

6...No. 14 OSU 28, No. 15 Pittsburgh 23 (1984)

Pitt rallied with 16 fourth-quarter points to take the lead on Tom Everett's 37-yard field goal with 2:39 left.

Mike Tomczak rallied the Buckeyes with a 39-yard touchdown pass to Thad Jemison with 39 seconds remaining to overcome the 23-21 deficit.

5...No. 7 OSU 44, No. 8 Notre Dame 28 (2016)

Ezekiel Elliott scored four touchdowns, but no bowl win would make up for the Buckeyes losing at home to Michigan State in the next-to-last game of the regular season and missing out on the chance to defend its College Football Playoff title.

The game was a double dud in that Notre Dame All-American linebacker Jaylon Smith suffered a gruesome, freak knee injury and OSU All-American Joey Bosa was ejected for targeting in their respective final college games.

4...No. 4 OSU 34, No. 6 Notre Dame 20 (2006)

Antonio Pittman's 60-yard touchdown run with 1:46 left denied Notre Dame a chance to rally and tie the Buckeyes.

The Irish featured quarterback Brady Quinn, who played his high school football in suburban Columbus before going to South Bend to play for the Fighting Irish.

On this night, Quinn took a back seat to his sister, Laura, the then-girlfriend and now wife of OSU linebacker A.J. Hawk. Repeated camera shots of her in a half-Notre Dame, half-Ohio State jersey remains the enduring image from the Buckeyes third straight win over the Irish.

3...No. 3 Texas 24, No. 10 OSU, 21 (2009)

Ohio State rallied behind freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor to overcome a 14-6 fourth-quarter deficit and take the lead on Boom Herron's 15-yard touchdown run with 2:05 left.

Texas quickly drove downfield behind quarterback Colt McCoy, who hit flanker Quan Cosby with a quick slant he took 26 yards for the game-winning touchdown with 16 seconds remaining.

The loss was OSU's third straight in a post-season bowl.

2...No. 2 Clemson 31, No. 3 OSU 0 (2016)

The Tigers rolled through the College Football Playoff semifinal behind quarterback DeShaun Watson and a dominant defense that inflicted the first and only shutout of Urban Meyer's 17-year career as a head coach.

Afterward, Meyer said: Ohio State is not used to this. I’m not used to this, and we will not get used to this. That’s not going to happen again. So we’ll get things worked out.”

Within two weeks, Meyer had fired his two offensive coordinators who presided over an offense that threw for just 127 yards against Clemson and hired a new quarterbacks coach, Ryan Day.

Since then, the Buckeyes have thrown more touchdown passes than any program in the country and now find themselves matched against Clemson again in the College Football Playoff semifinals.

1...No. 2 OSU 31, No. 1 Miami 24 2OT (2003)

The defending national champion Hurricanes' 34-game winning streak came to an end with an OSU defensive stand in the second overtime.

The Buckeyes' title was their first since 1968 and came in Tressel's second season.

Miami fans will always debate a pass-interference call that gave OSU a fresh set of downs after a fourth-down pass fell incomplete. That allowed the Buckeyes to score and tie the game, forcing a second overtime in which it scored first and then held the Hurricanes out of the end zone.

What many have forgotten is that Ohio State faced a previous fourth-down dilemma on that same possession that could have handed the title to Miami.

Buckeyes quarterback Craig Krenzel converted that fourth-and-14 with a 17-yard pass to Michael Jenkins, foreshadowing the drama yet to come.

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