Coach Josh Heupel doesn’t much care for the narrative that No. 7 Tennessee, with its checkered history over the past 15 years, is content just to have reached the College Football Playoff.

The fourth-year coach knows that mindset won’t work facing a team like No. 6 Ohio State, which is in the playoff for the sixth time and has one of the best rosters in the nation.

“If you’re just happy to be there, it’s going to be a quick cup of coffee,” Heupel said.

Ohio State (10-2), a top-five team for most of the season, is still reeling from a fourth straight loss to archrival Michigan. A loss to the Volunteers will only add to calls from fans for coach Ryan Day to be fired.

So, Ohio State will be seeking redemption in the first-round game tonight in the frigid Horseshoe at Columbus, Ohio. As quarterback Will Howard put it, it’s a chance to “right the wrongs.”

Day is stressing that the eighth-seeded Buckeyes deserve to be here.

Ninth-seeded Tennessee (10-2) hasn’t won a national championship — or an SEC title, for that matter — since 1998, the year after Peyton Manning left. It got even rougher with the firing of Philip Fulmer after the 2008 season. with a string of disappointing seasons, a revolving door of coaches and NCAA violations.

Now the Vols get a shot at a national title thanks to the newly expanded 12-team playoff. The winner of the first-round game will travel to the Rose Bowl to face top-ranked Oregon, which beat Ohio State by a point in a shootout back on Oct. 12.

Penn State carries weight of history

DaQuan Jones remembers the chaos. The uncertainty. The sanctions. The aftermath.

How could he not? He and the rest of his Penn State teammates — those that stuck around anyway — lived through it.

Jones was a sophomore defensive lineman in the fall of 2011 when the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal brought one of college football’s bluebloods to its knees and sent revered coach Joe Paterno into exile.

It felt like a tipping point.

“The program could have done a whole tanking and kind of completely went under,” said Jones.

Only, it didn’t. While some transferred out in search of a fresh start, Jones was among those who stuck around. Bill O’Brien took on the impossible task of replacing an icon. Walk-ons filled the void left by the scholarship reductions levied by the NCAA as part of the fallout that shook the state’s flagship institution to its foundation.

Things were very fragile. Yet in those uncertain times, the Nittany Lions began the methodical process of building themselves anew, well aware of what was at stake.

The memories remain fresh for Jones, now an 11-year NFL veteran in his third season as a starter for the Buffalo Bills. He’s kept close tabs on his alma mater since graduating in 2014, and can draw a direct line from the rubble the program sifted through in the wake of Sandusky to the opportunity that awaits Penn State today when the sixth-seeded Nittany Lions (11-2) host 11th-seeded SMU (11-2) in the CFP opening round.

“I think it all just starts with that firm foundation of the guys that stayed there in 2012,” he said. “I’m just so happy to see the program do so well.”

This is Penn State’s first invitation to the playoff.

Texas, Clemson set for first meeting

No. 13 Clemson got into the CFP on a thunderous kick in the final seconds of the ACC championship. No. 4 Texas limped in after a great regular season was deflated by a frustrating overtime loss to Georgia in the SEC title game.

Now these two heavyweights meet for the first time with even higher stakes:

It matters little to Tigers coach Dabo Swinney that a program that once dominated the CFP has to go on the road as the lowest seed in the field at No. 12.

Clemson (10-3) was all but forgotten after a season-opening humiliation at the hands of Georgia, and now has some swagger and a puncher’s chance of winning the whole thing. Clemson won national titles in 2016 and 2018 but missed the playoff the last four seasons.

Texas (11-2) peaked at No. 1 at midseason and its only two losses were to Georgia, the No. 2 seed in the playoff.