It is Sunday, December 29th, 2019, I am Dan Rubin, this is Bucknuts Almost Live, our

In-season weekend podcast. The Ohio State Buck guys go to the fiesta bowl and fall to Clemson 29-23 and a game that will be discussed for a long, long time.

There were many calls, there were many plays that as I sit here right now, I have a hard time getting my mind around.

So this will be a cathartic episode for me. I will be joined here in a moment by Bill Curlick, the Dean of Ohio State recruiting.

He's about to hit the road to do recruiting coverage, but we will discuss the game in detail.

And then the people who can't match back and then will come on, I will essentially say go and he will take it and run with it.

Bill, welcome to the show.

Tough morning for Bucki Nation, but I guess reality is that the season ended last night and it was a spectacular run of 13 wins in a row in dominating fashion virtually every game.

Just a tough, tough way to add the season in the desert on Saturday night.

My prediction for the game was Ohio State 40, Clemson 29.

And as I sit here, I still feel very good about that prediction. I fully believe the game plan Ryan Day came up with was a 40 point game plan.

Clemson scored 29 points, so we'll just leave that there.

I think Clemson was initially taken aback by the strength of Ohio State's offensive line, but we will get into the referee inside of things here.

I love JK Dobbins. He's a warrior. He showed that last night. He played through an ankle injury.

Unfortunately, those two drops he had in my opinion cost the buck eyes eight points.

Those eight points would have put them at 24 nothing. I think that would have changed the entire tenor of the game.

Let's get to the officiating.

Give your impressions on the targeting call. Obviously it knocked Sean way out of the game.

And then your impressions on the fumble return for a touchdown by the buck eyes that was reversed.

Well, before I get to those two real quick, I want to touch on something you said Dan at the very beginning.

And I was texting with a coaching friend of mine early in that game.

I think Ryan Day, all year long, has had this team ready to play every game and has had good game plans.

...