Sugar Bowl 2021: Schedule, Top Storylines to Follow in Ohio State vs. Clemson

Either Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields will play their final college football game at the 2021 Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day (8 p.m. ET on ESPN).

The quarterbacks for the Clemson Tigers and Ohio State Buckeyes are both projected to be high first-round picks in the 2021 NFL draft. 

Before they focus solely on draft preparations, Lawrence and Fields will duel for the second time in their careers with a spot in the national championship game on the line. 

Clemson will attempt to get to its third consecutive national championship game, which would be one short of the College Football Playoff era record set by the Alabama Crimson Tide. 

If Dabo Swinney's Tigers achieve that feat, they would have beaten the Buckeyes for the third time in the national semifinals and kept the Big Ten out of the title clash for the sixth straight season. 

Fields put up a few better totals than Lawrence in their first head-to-head meeting at the 2019 Fiesta Bowl.

The Ohio State quarterback completed 12 more passes than the Clemson signal-caller and finished with a 320-259 advantage in passing yards.

However, Fields was more careless with the ball, as he was picked off on two occasions. Lawrence had a pair of touchdown throws to Travis Etienne and no interceptions. 

The experience against the Clemson and Ohio State defenses should help both players with their progressions and reads early on as they settle into the contest. 

Lawrence holds an advantage in form after posting 322 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the ACC Championship game. He also had 90 yards and a score on the ground. 

Fields struggled to get going against the Northwestern Wildcats in the Big Ten Championship game. Ohio State needed over 300 rushing yards out of Trey Sermon to win that contest.

The Ohio State junior has not thrown for 200 yards in each of his last two games, and he is more turnover-prone than Lawrence. He threw three picks against the Indiana Hoosiers, while Lawrence has been picked off just four times this season. 

If Fields fails to improve on his Big Ten Championship game performance, he could finish his collegiate career 0-2 against Lawrence and come up one game short of a national title for the second straight year. 

Since Ohio State won the inaugural College Football Playoff National Championship, the SEC and Clemson have dominated the title clash. 

Clemson, Alabama, the Georgia Bulldogs and LSU Tigers are the only teams to advance to the championship in the last five seasons. 

In the same span, Ohio State captured four consecutive Big Ten titles, but it has done nothing to cash in on those wins on a national stage. 

In the shortened 2020 season, the Big Ten was viewed as a much weaker conference than the SEC and ACC due to the struggles of the Michigan Wolverines and Penn State Nittany Lions, who are typically in the Top 15 for long stretches of the season. 

Ohio State held the halftime lead over the Tigers at the 2019 Fiesta Bowl, and if it finds a way to limit Lawrence's production, it may earn the Big Ten's first national semifinal victory since it beat Alabama in the 2015 Sugar Bowl.

Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90.

Statistics obtained from ESPN.com.