On the first day of 2015, the College Football Playoff will begin. The first of the two semifinal games is between No. 2 Oregon and No. 3 Florida State and will be held at the Rose Bowl. It will pit Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich and FSU head coach Jimbo Fisher in the first meeting between the two respective programs.
The two head coaches spoke Sunday about the chance to play in the inaugural playoff.
Jimbo, what are the benefits of having almost of a month to prepare for the type of offense Oregon runs?
Fisher: I don’t know if you can ever practice for the speed. We’re a fast team ourselves but they do it at such a high level and the efficiency is off the charts. They’re unbelievably explosive. Having time, we’ll have time to evaluate a lot of film and go through the process, just like they’ll have on us.
Mark, now that the Ducks have been selected to play for the playoffs and the national championship, what does that mean to you, the team and the university?
Helfrich: We take pride in being the last Pac-10 conference champion, the first Pac-12 conference champion and now it’s another bullet point of how far our program has come. When you look across you got Alabama, Ohio State and Florida State and we’re in the same breath, it’s an honor… Playing at the Rose Bowl is every kids’ dream and our guys will be fired up.
Jimbo, when you’ve won 29 games in a row, with style points or not, do you feel like you’re the champs until someone beats you?
Fisher: I think you always have that mentality as a coach, there is nothing against the other teams ranked ahead of us but I think winning is so hard and you repeat things people are going to prepare differently, prepare for you in the off-season. And to overcome so much adversity, defending our championship and still being able to go undefeated, I think it is a tremendous feat.
Jimbo, do you think Marcus Mariota is the front runner for the Heisman and should he receive it next week?
Fisher: I haven’t seen everybody, I can’t voice that opinion. If he’s not the frontrunner he’s in that top group. He’s had an unbelievable year, look at his numbers and what he’s meant to his team. He’s the driving force of everything that starts with at Oregon, he’s one of the all-time great quarterbacks of college football history.
This game is so much more than the quarterbacks, but can you both speak to that matchup and having those two talents on the same field?
Fisher: It’s what college football is all about. You have two of the greatest players in college football right now and that makes for great TV, makes for great competition. That’s what it’s about, getting the best against the best. Oregon is national brand name team, they’ve earned their right. And Florida State is a national brand name and I think when you put quarterbacks like that, brand names like that, as far as college football, it’s what the playoff was designed to do.
Helfrich: Yeah I’d echoe a bunch of that same answer. I think the key components of this is that you have two of the greatest of all time at their position and great teams. Guys that the team has 100-percent confidence in whatever they do.
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