THE LATEST: Sooners score TD on 1st drive against Clemson

By foxsports
Published

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) The latest developments from the College Football Playoff national semifinal game between Clemson and Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl (all times local):

4:18 p.m.

SCORING UPDATE

That didn't take long.

Oklahoma's Samaje Perine plowed his way in for a 1-yard touchdown run, and the Sooners took a quick 7-0 lead over Clemson in the Orange Bowl. The Sooners took the opening kickoff and went 75 yards in 10 plays.

Clemson sacked Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield on the first play, but the Sooners recovered quickly. Two big third-down conversions fueled the drive: a 17-yard run by Perine, and a 10-yard completion from Mayfield to Dede Westbrook.

Clemson didn't trail for a single second in eight of its first 13 games this season.

---

4:10 p.m.

At long last, it's game time.

Clemson has won the coin toss and will kick off to Oklahoma to open the Orange Bowl.

For Oklahoma, this game is a chance to not just get to the national title matchup but finish avenging all that went wrong last season. The Sooners lost to five teams last year - Kansas State, Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma State and Clemson.

They've already beaten the first four on that list in 2015, and now get their shot at the Tigers in this CFP semifinal.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney looks more than ready to get this started, telling ESPN just before kickoff ''it's going to be a heck of a ballgame.''

---

3:45 p.m.

If early arrivals into Sun Life Stadium are any indication, it's a Clemson home game in the Orange Bowl.

The Tigers are on the home sideline and are using the same tunnel that the Miami Dolphins use to enter the field, but they also have a decided edge over Oklahoma in fans - at least using the highly scientific method of people wearing Clemson colors versus people wearing Sooners colors.

Then again, it makes geographic sense. Clemson is about 750 miles from Miami Gardens, while Norman, Oklahoma is roughly 1,500 miles from South Florida.

---

3:10 p.m.

The Gatorade coolers on the sidelines at Sun Life Stadium are already getting quite a workout, and kickoff of the Orange Bowl is about an hour away.

Put simply, it's hot in South Florida.

The temperature on the field was 83 degrees at 3 p.m., and factoring in the 71 percent humidity made it feel like 89 degrees outside when the Tigers and Sooners were going through their warmups. It is unseasonably warm, even for South Florida, with some weather stations around the area reporting record highs for this date.

So cramping very easily could be a factor in the first of today's CFP semifinals.

---

AP College Football website: http://collegefootball.ap.org