COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The Sugar Bowl between No. 3 Ohio State and No. 2 Clemson is one day away and it’s a day the Buckeyes have wanted since losing the Fiesta Bowl to the Tigers last year.

All week long and all year long players and coaches have continuously said this is not about getting revenge but rather rewriting the story — one that began when last year’s season ended in Phoenix.

Here are three areas where OSU must excel to get by the Tigers and advance to their first national championship since 2015.

Contain Etienne

Travis Etienne is one of, if not the best, running back in all of college football. In fact, Pro Football Focus has Etienne going as the first running back taken in this year’s NFL Draft.

Etienne is constantly overshadowed by his quarterback Trevor Lawrence, but teams who play Clemson know not to overlook the Tigers’ all-time leading rusher.

The New Orleans native not only owns the record for career rushing yards at Clemson but also the ACC record with 4,920 yards through four seasons. Etienne has about half the number of yards this year (882) than he had in 2019 (1,614) and 2018 (1,658), but he played in 15 games both of those seasons and has only played in 11 so far in 2020.

Etienne is also a receiving threat, something OSU learned the hard way last year when he torched the Buckeyes with three catches for 98 yards and two touchdowns. In his career, Etienne has more than 1,000 yards receiving, is third on the team in receptions and fifth among all running backs in receiving yards.

“I think the running back is a fantastic player in every phase of the game,” Ohio State defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs said. “He runs the ball inside. He runs the ball outside. He catches the ball out of the backfield. He catches the ball on the perimeter. I think he’s dynamic.”

Ohio State’s defense is more than capable of stopping Etienne. They actually did it last year holding him to 40 yards on 10 carries. The good news for Ohio State is the Tigers’ offensive line is not as good as it was last year with Clemson only returning one starter from 2019. But expect the Tigers to run much more than 10 times, and failing to contain Etienne will be detrimental for an OSU team that struggles against the pass.

RUN THE BALL!!

All caps for a reason. Ohio State fans and players alike were befuddled for as to why Ohio State didn’t go to the run game more often sooner in the Big Ten championship. Once they did, the Buckeyes stampeded Northwestern for nearly 400 yards on the ground, including a record-breaking 331-yard performance from Oklahoma graduate transfer Trey Sermon.

“We were saying, ‘Just run the ball. Just let us go,’” senior tight end Luke Farrell said about the 22-10 win over Northwestern. “That’s all we wanted to do in the second half there.”

Ohio State has rushed for more than 300 yards in its past three games and ranks fifth in the country in rush yards per game (275.7).

It’s going to take more than just running the ball against Clemson, which ranks in the top 10 in virtually every run defense category, including rush yards per game (99.8), rush yards per play (2.79), opponent rushing touchdowns (7) and tackles for a loss per game (9.4).

The Sugar Bowl is essentially an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object when it comes to Ohio State’s offensive line and Clemson’s defensive front, which was also the case last year when OSU ran for 196 yards — including 176 from a hobbled J.K. Dobbins, who was dealing with an ankle injury throughout the game.

Sermon was J.K. Dobbins-esque in the Big Ten championship game, and his elusiveness and speed is complemented by the power of Master Teague.

“There were a couple times it felt like we had J.K. back there with how [Sermon] was taking off,” offensive guard and first team All-American Wyatt Davis said.

Sermon has looked out of sorts when sharing the workload with Teague, who was injured during the Big Ten title game. Teague is expected to play, so it’ll be interesting to see how coach Ryan Day and offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson decide to divvy up carries between the two backs.

Get Home on Lawrence

If Lawrence is home alone, Clemson will eviscerate the Buckeyes’ defense — even if they’re able to stop Etienne. Ohio State has the No. 1-ranked defensive front out of any team in the Power Five conferences, according to PFF. That’s because it gets pressure on the QB. The Buckeyes’ 50% pressure rate is the highest in the nation and third-highest in getting pressure on opponent drop-backs (44.6%).

But just getting pressure on Trevor Lawrence won’t be enough. OSU averages 2.8 sacks per games, 25th best in the country but a far cry from the 3.8 sacks it averaged last year.

In last year’s loss to the Tigers, OSU bothered Lawrence enough to contain the Tigers’ pass game. OSU held Clemson to just under 8 yards per pass play and didn’t allow any of Clemson’s talented receivers to gain more than 50 yards.

Granted, that’s when Ohio State still had two future NFL first-round draft picks at cornerback in Jeff Okudah and Damon Arnette and a do-it-all safety Jordan Fuller. But part of Clemson’s sub-par (by its standard) passing game that day was due to OSU’s ability to make Lawrence uncomfortable. The Buckeyes sacked Lawrence three times and hit him numerous times in a game he called the “most physical game” he’s ever played.

If Ohio State can turn pressure into sacks and QB hits, the Tigers will rely more on Etienne in the pass and run game and use Lawrence’s running ability more — both things Ohio State experienced last year and can live with Friday because of how unreliable the secondary has been this year.