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sportsOklahoma Sooners

Hurting for more: Could Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts be the QB who earns Sooners their elusive CFP victory?

The former Alabama standout has plenty of experience with LSU.

GRAPEVINE — Oklahoma has mastered the art of making the College Football Playoff under Lincoln Riley.

In three seasons since Riley succeeded Bob Stoops — you know, the Dallas Renegades coach — Oklahoma has been in the CFP three consecutive years with three star transfer quarterbacks. In the process, OU has removed the playoff angst that surrounded the Big 12 a few years ago.

OU quarterback Jalen Hurts now must accomplish what Heisman-winning predecessors Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray couldn’t do — win a playoff game. The fourth-seeded Sooners (12-1) will meet No. 1 LSU (13-0) and likely Heisman winner Joe Burrow on Dec. 28 in the Peach Bowl. Hurts is 3-0 against LSU from his time at Alabama in games dominated by the Crimson Tide defense.

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“Does it make a huge difference? I don’t know,” Riley said Sunday after the playoff pairings were announced. “Probably having played in the playoffs and handling just all the hype and all the outside noise that comes along with this, I would think he’s going to be as prepared as anybody going into that.

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“But obviously, he’s doing it in a different place. This is a different LSU team.”

With a dominating 37-10 victory Saturday over Georgia in the SEC title game, LSU moved past Ohio State for the top spot. The No. 2 Buckeyes (13-0) will face No. 3 Clemson (13-0), the defending national champion, in the Fiesta Bowl.

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With Oklahoma making the CFP, Big 12 runner-up Baylor (11-2) earned the conference’s automatic berth in the Sugar Bowl, an interesting intersection of Baptists and Bourbon Street.

Coach Matt Rhule vowed that his team would not have a letdown after losing the Big 12 championship game 30-23 in overtime to OU. No. 7 Baylor drew No. 5 Georgia (11-2) on New Year’s Day. It’s Baylor’s first trip to the Sugar Bowl since 1957.

“We’re a program that believes in competition. We’re a program that believes in being grateful for every opportunity that you have,” Rhule said. “And we were a team that was picked sixth or seventh in our league. So, really, while we did come close to making the playoff, we’re really an overtime away from maybe having a chance to play in that game, that’s not really how we think.

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“I mean, we’re unbelievably excited to have a chance to go out and play together as a team one more time.”

Rhule, who is on the road recruiting, said he did not have a medical update on quarterback Charlie Brewer, who exited the Big 12 championship game with an apparent head injury.

The Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic has Penn State for the first time since 1975 against Memphis, the top-ranked champion from the “group of five” conferences. Departing coach Mike Norvell met with his players Sunday morning after becoming the new coach at Florida State.

“We are moving forward, and we are just focused on myself and the staff that’s in place right now, coaching this bowl game,” Memphis interim coach Ryan Silverfield said. “And chips will fall where they may. At the end of the day, that’s entirely the focus—the people.”

After posting double-digit victories for the first time since 1984, SMU (10-2) earned a trip to the Boca Bowl in Boca Raton, Fla. The opponent is Conference USA champ Florida Atlantic, which lost coach Lane Kiffin to Ole Miss this weekend.

Texas, which is in the market for offensive and defensive coordinators after a disappointing 7-5 regular season, will face Utah in the Alamo Bowl. It’s the Longhorns first visit to the game since Mack Brown’s farewell game in 2013 against Oregon.

Texas A&M, which also went 7-5, with three losses to No. 1-ranked teams, drew the Texas Bowl in nearby Houston against Oklahoma State (8-4) and Chuba Hubbard, the nation’s leading rusher.

Controversy, usually not far away in the playoff process, was barely a factor. The only major public debate was about who deserved the No. 1 seed between LSU and Ohio State, thus avoiding a first-round matchup with Clemson, which has been on a shock-and-awe tour the last two months.

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With Utah’s Pac-12 loss to Oregon and LSU and Ohio State winning conference championships, Oklahoma was an easy choice for No. 4.

“That conference championship and second win against Baylor moved them into the No. 4 spot,” CFP selection committee chairman Rob Mullens, the Oregon athletic director, told ESPN. “We did spend some time talking about Oklahoma and Georgia, but in the end it was a solid Oklahoma selection for the No. 4 spot.”

Besides Hurt’s SEC ties, another story line will be whether Oklahoma’s reworked defense under first-year coordinator Alex Grinch can contain LSU. Only Auburn held the Tigers under 36 points this season. LSU put up 45 points on Texas early and 50 on Texas A&M late. Burrow is averaging 10.6 yards per attempt, with 48 touchdown passes and six interceptions.

“So give them credit. They’re really good,” Riley said. “They do a great job. It’s fortunate for us we do, through the years, get to see a bunch of really good offenses. This will certainly be as good as we face.”

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Twitter: @ChuckCarltonDMN