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When Dabo Swinney took a liking to the idea of bringing Brent Venables to Clemson from Oklahoma, one of the great pluses was the diversity of offenses the Sooners faced in the Big 12.

Kevin Steele wasn't much for adapting and adjusting to new offensive approaches. Venables had a zest for it.

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Thus a match was made in Blue Ridge heaven as Venables was one of the foundational pieces to Clemson's rise to unimaginable greatness.

We don't want to hyperventilate over what happened the other night in New Orleans. We don't want to obsess so much over the most recent result that we lose the overall context and minimize the very real possibility that this defense will be all grown up and ferocious in 2021, fully equipped to roar again at the playoff level.

But it's hard to get away from the feeling that the novel approach Ohio State employed to trigger regular and fatal disarray among Venables' defenders will not remain confined to that night in New Orleans.