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West Virginia needed three harrowing wins. Clemson rode the power of a blowout.
Different methods, same reward. The Mountaineers and Tigers are heading to the Orange Bowl.
The matchup was announced Sunday night and, given the events of the weekend, was hardly a surprise. Clemson (10-3) earned an automatic berth by soundly beating Virginia Tech in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game on Saturday night.
West Virginia (9-3) took a more eventful road, first edging South Florida on Thursday night, next getting a colossal boost when Cincinnati beat Connecticut on Saturday.
Had Cincinnati lost that game, Louisville would have almost certainly represented the Big East in the Bowl Championship Series.
Instead, it's the Mountaineers who were the Orange Bowl's pick to join the Tigers - a matchup that thrilled the bowl's selection committee.
The Orange Bowl is Jan. 4 in Miami.
West Virginia's BCS hopes were, at best, dim after losing 38-35 to Louisville on Nov. 5. The Mountaineers had three games left, two of them on the road, knew they had to win them all to have any realistic shot at one of football's big-money games, and trailed in the fourth quarter in each of those contests.
No problem - West Virginia rallied past Cincinnati 24-21, got a touchdown with 6 minutes remaining to top Pittsburgh 21-20 and then needed overtime to beat South Florida 30-27. And when Cincinnati held off Connecticut two days later, the Mountaineers knew the Orange Bowl would be calling.
''Well, real simple. For three weeks in a row we've put ourselves in precarious situations to where we've figured out a way to win at the end,'' West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said after the Mountaineers won Thursday night. ''Give the guys a bunch of credit for hanging in there.''
The Orange Bowl says Holgorsen is only the second coach to lead a team to their game in his first season. He joins Chuck Fairbanks on that list; Fairbanks guided Oklahoma to an Orange Bowl win on Jan. 1, 1968.
Clemson had eyes on the BCS all season, even getting some mention during the year as a national-title hopeful. The Tigers were never ranked at any point in 2010, but rose all the way to No. 6 this year after an 8-0 start. A loss to Georgia Tech started a downward spiral, where Clemson lost three of its last four games, the last two of those blowout losses to North Carolina State and rival South Carolina.
The Tigers looked shaky - that is, until Saturday night.
Clemson got touchdowns on its first four second-half possessions of the ACC title game, turning a matchup that was a 10-10 tie at halftime into what would go into the books as a 38-10 rout of Virginia Tech.
So 30 years later, the Tigers are back in the Orange Bowl.
''Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to announce that I will be taking my Clemson talents to South Beach, baby,'' Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said after the ACC title game. ''I wanted to say that. We're excited. Man, it's just a great time. Awfully excited about going to Miami.''
Clemson's last appearance in the game came after the 1981 season. This marks only the second time in the past 53 seasons the Tigers have reached one of the games that now make up the BCS. West Virginia is in the Orange Bowl for the first time and looking for its third BCS win in seven years. It beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl after the 2005 season and topped Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl two years later.
For a pair of schools with rich tradition, passionate fan bases and separated by only about 500 miles, they have hardly any history against one another.
West Virginia and Clemson have met only once previously, a 27-7 Tigers win in the 1989 Gator Bowl. Chester McGlockton - the former Pro Bowler who died suddenly last week - sealed the Tigers' win midway through the fourth quarter of that game 22 years ago by knocking the ball from Mountaineers quarterback Major Harris and falling on it in the end zone for a touchdown.
