After last week’s semifinal matchups, ESPN+’s Inside the College Football Playoff took a closer look at both games as well as a look forward toward next week’s National Championship game. Whether you enjoyed the games and want to get closer to the action or missed them and want an exciting recap, this latest episode, titled “Return to Glory,” is the perfect way to summarize the playoffs so far.
“Return to Glory” opens with last week’s big story in the world of College Football. In a press conference ahead of their game with Ohio State, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney expressed his opinion that Ohio State didn’t really belong in the playoffs. Those comments dominated sports media for a news cycle and fueled the fire for a Buckeyes team that was already motivated by the idea of revenge for their loss to Clemson last season.
As both of those teams head to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, Swinney is interviewed at the airport regarding the team’s offensive coordinator who was forced to miss the game after testing positive for COVID. Ohio State head coach Ryan Day talks about his team’s strange journey to the playoff, having played only six games compared to the 11 games other teams played.
The episode then gets into a long highlight reel from the Clemson-Ohio State game, done in the same style of some classic NFL Films projects. If you haven’t seen the game and are not aware of the result, this episode would have you believe it was a very exciting game. In reality though, Ohio State dominated Clemson, winning by 21. The episode tries its hardest to interject drama into a game where there was actually very little.
The episode highlights how many fans and experts expected Clemson to win that game, treating the oft-favored Ohio State as a sizable underdog. We get to see the players and coaches on the field celebrating as they start looking forward to their National Championship opportunity.
The episode then takes a bit of a time jump, going back to the Alabama-Notre Dame semifinal matchup which actually took place before the other game. It’s an interesting decision to do the games in this order because this one actually featured even less drama than the other, with Alabama winning a blowout by a final score of 31-14.
Highlights from the game include spectacular plays made by Alabama wide receiver DeVonta Smith and running back Najee Harris. The episode tres once again to interject some drama by showing a Notre Dame touchdown that brings the score 14-7, but that was the closest the heavy underdogs ever got.
As the game goes final, the narrator credit Alabama head coach Nick Saban with their continued success. In 14 years as the coach, Saban has taken the Crimson Tide to 8 National Championship games.
In probably the coolest part of the episode, highlight from both game are shown in a montage so that they mirror each other, showing some remarkable similarities between the wins that both Alabama and Ohio State managed on Friday. Some poorly edited narration explains that they will face off for a National Championship.
Given the nearly impossible task this show had of making two very one-sided games seem cinematically dramatic, “Return to Glory” was rather entertaining. There are a few editing gaffes that make it feel as though the episode was cut together before the games actually happened and they had to insert some changes later on, but aside from that, it’s an exciting look inside the world of College Football.
There will be two more episodes of Inside the College Football Playoff, with the next premiering on January 8, ahead of the National Championship game. You can watch Inside the College Football Playoff exclusively on ESPN+.