Rece Davis, Pete Thamel make picks for Orange, Cotton Bowl

Rece Davis and Pete Thamel of ESPN’s College GameDay Podcast are locking in their predictions for this week’s College Football Playoff Semifinals at the Orange Bowl and the Cotton Bowl.

First, Notre Dame will face Penn State inside Hard Rock Stadium on Thursday evening. The two analysts are split on this one, with Thamel believing in the Nittany Lions, and Davis pushing back and riding with the Fighting Irish.

Get your team’s official College Football Playoff watch from AXIA by CLICKING HERE: “Watches that tell so much more than time”

“I’m going to take Penn State, 24-17,” Thamel revealed. “I feel like — I’ve said this a few times in this Playoff, but I don’t feel like outside skill is a strength of either of these places, and I feel like this game is going to be won with interior physicality.

“Again, I feel like Penn State can be creative enough with the tight end, and creative enough on offense. They have a little bit of better edge throwing the ball down the field, although I don’t have much faith in their receiving corps. But I just think they’ve answered the bell here, and if you go second half of Big Ten title game on, they’re playing really well.”

While Davis agrees with Penn State’s impressive abilities, he believing Notre Dame will squeak out a victory in Florida: “They are playing great. I agree on all fronts, but I picked Notre Dame to beat Georgia, and I’m going to pick Notre Dame to squeak it out against Penn State,” Davis added.

“I think they’re going to do it. It’s going to be an odd-looking score, because there are going to be field goals involved. Mitch Jeter seems to be straightened out. I’ll say Notre Dame wins it, 23-20.”

As for the Cotton Bowl, both analysts have confidence in Ohio State to defat Texas on Friday evening, and Thamel doesn’t believe it’ll be particularly close.

“We both stood on the field and watched those two games, so it’s going to be hard to go against the eyeball biases. I don’t want to pick for you. But, yeah, I think Ohio State wins this game 31-17,” Thamel stated. “I don’t want to say it’s going to be a blowout. I think it will be a good game.

“I just think, the way they are executing right now, their Indiana-level execution in their buy-games early in the year against elite competition. So, even if they slip like 20%, they’re probably still going to be better.”

While Davis agrees with Thamel’s sentiment, the ESPN analyst thinks it’ll be a closer game than Thamel, predicting the Longhorns to lose by a touchdown.

“I’m going to say I’m picking Ohio State also, but I think Texas will have a little more success on offense than you do,” Davis explained. “I think I’m going to say that Ohio State wins the game 35-28. I think that Texas will move the ball. Might be a late try to get back in the game touchdown to cut it to seven, but that’s where I’ll go.

“So I’ve got Ohio State, Notre Dame in the national championship game, which everybody could live with that. And you’ve got Penn State and Ohio State in a rematch in the national championship game, and everybody could also live with that.”

All told, the Orange Bowl and the Cotton Bowl will be settled on the field, but Rece Davis and Pete Thamel provided some interesting predictions for this week’s games. By the end of the week, we’ll know which teams are playing for the national title, and any matchup should be an awesome one with these four potential participants.