People like to talk about “bulletin board material” when it comes to motivation for a big game and while the debate can be made that if you need something from the outside to get you up for the game, you are already in trouble, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney certainly made some waves with his final Amway Coaches Poll vote.

Swinney banged the drum leading up to the College Football Playoff that “games matter” in terms of number of games played and seemed to back that up in his final vote, where he had Ohio State 11th in the nation.

Often times, these ballots are filled out by senior aides within the department and don’t always come from the head coach himself, but would it be surprising if it did, based on some of the media appearances that Swinney took part in the two weeks leading up to the game, especially with Clemson’s playoff future uncertain until the Tigers took care of Notre Dame in the ACC Championship game?

The Buckeyes were only able to play six games this season due to three cancellations due to COVID-19 testing, but even with that the Buckeyes did play in two games with unavailability lists north of 20 players (not saying that all 20-plus were due to COVID tests).

Ohio State saw games with Maryland and Michigan canceled on them while Ohio State had to pull out of the Illinois game in an effort to try and save the final two games of the season. The Buckeyes were short-handed against both Michigan State and in the B1G Championship game against Northwestern. Ohio State won the game against MSU by 40 points with a second-team offensive line and down a starting linebacker (Tuf Borland). Ohio State struggled more against the Cats in a 12-point win, down a couple of receivers (Chris Olave, Jaxon Smith-Njigba) as well as a linebacker (Baron Browning).

RELATED: See how all the coaches voted in the Amway Coaches Poll

Ohio State was installed as the No. 3 seed in the College Football Playoff in the Sugar Bowl against No. 2 Clemson, setting up a re-match of the 2019 semifinal in the Fiesta Bowl, a game that Ohio State led a good part of before a few calls went the wrong way and Ohio State could not wrestle the lead back in the final minute of the game.

Every season the final coaches poll ranking votes are released in their entirety so there should have been no surprise once the actual votes were released.

Don’t count on the Ohio State players and coaches to make a big deal in public about Swinney’s vote of no confidence in the Buckeyes. Internally however, there might be a mention or two at some point as the Buckeyes have less than two weeks to get ready for this game.

Ryan Day does not have a vote in the Amway Coaches Poll, but other playoff coaches do. Nick Saban had Ohio State ranked No. 5 on his final ballot while Brian Kelly had Ohio State ranked No. 4. The coaches poll has no bearing on the College Football Playoff rankings as those are determined by a panel of 13 experts.