NCAA Championship Preview – Clemson Could Be Equal to This Task

  • In Charles Jay
  • Mon, Jan 7th, 2019 1:52:05 am
  • By Charles Jay - Exclusive to OSGA


The Clemson Tigers hope that a freshman quarterback can drive them to victory in the NCAA national championship football game on Monday night at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara.


When the Clemson Tigers played against the Alabama Crimson Tide twice before for the national championship, they were able to move the ball rather liberally against a defense that was arguably the nation's best. Alabama is still formidable on the stop end, but maybe not as much as before. And Clemson comes with a freshman at quarterback who many consider to be a future superstar. The NCAA championship game, the result of the four-team college football playoff, will take place on Monday night at 8 PM ET at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, CA.

And if you are a BetAnySports customer, you not only get reduced juice before the game starts, but also the opportunity to make real-time wagers through the magic of Live Betting Ultra.

Clemson (14-0 SU, 8-6 ATS) is ranked second in the nation in defense and third in offense. It would appear that their big assignment here is to deal with the aerial attack of Alabama (also 14-0 SU, 8-6 ATS, led by sophomore quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who of course led the Tide to that second-half rally and a victory over Georgia in last year's championship game. But make no mistake about the fact that Alabama can run the ball as well; they have three backs who are versatile and were highly-recruited, and they will probably all play in the NFL.

What Clemson - which has given up only 12.9 points per game - has that is going to come in handy here is the best defensive line in the country. Between Clelin Farrell and Austin Bryant on the edges, and Christian Wilkins inside, they can cause a lot of disruption, even if they don't have Dexter Lawrence (who is out of this game on a suspension and lost his appeal). This group was second in the nation in Tackles for Loss and led the nation in sacks with 52. That last figure is very important, because Tua may not be as mobile as we are used to seeing him, due tof his ankle injury. Clemson has the potential to put the pressure on all night long.

In the NCAA championship odds posted on this game by the folks at BetAnySports, Clemson is the underdog:

Clemson Tigers -5.5
Alabama Crimson Tide +5.5

Over 58 points -110
Under 58 points -110

In a metric called "Success Rate," which measures the effectiveness to which an offense or defense is able to accomplish its objective on every play, the Clemson stop unit is ranked #1; they give up just 2.4 yards per rushing attempt and are third-best on passing downs. Even though Alabama has played against the likes of LSU and Mississippi State, this is probably the best defense it has faced thus far. And it is led by coordinator Brent Venables, who was at Oklahoma for thirteen years before coming to Clemson, and won the Broyles Award, honoring the best assistant coach in the country, in 2016. This is a very experienced defense, where ten players on the starting unit are either a junior or senior, which means they have, for the most part, played in these championship situations at least once or twice before.

In last year's game, Clemson only had 188 yards against Alabama in the semi-final-round, but that was with a quarterback (Kelly Bryant) who wasn't quite up to snuff. This year, Trevor Lawrence supplanted him behind center and has delivered huge, forcing Bryant to transfer to Missouri. Lawrence, a freshman out of Tennessee, has thrown 27 touchdown passes and been intercepted only four times, and has already been hailed as a possible top overall draft pick when he is eligible to turn pro. Lawrence is not the classic dual-threat quarterback as was DeSean Watson, who gave Alabama all kinds of fits in two title games (winning one of them), but he's possibly a more talented dropback passer than Tua.

And he has the support of one of the more explosive running backs in the country. Travis Etienne scored 22 touchdowns this year and averaged 8.3 yards per carry. The first-team All-American had a 62-yard touchdown run against Notre Dame last week, after being more or less slowed down previous to that. And it just illustrates how dangerous he can be, regardless of the circumstances.

Lawrence has to be protected, and we believe the Clemson offensive line is up to the task. They gave up just 17 sacks in fourteen games and have been very good precluding teams from penetrating, ranking second in the nation in TFL's allowed. They have covered fifteen of their last 18 games against top 10 teams and are not fazed at all about facing Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide. There is simply too much on both sides of the ball here not to take the points.

BetAnySports has you all set for the NCAA championship game, with reduced juice for better odds, not to mention Live Betting Ultra, which keeps you in the action all might long......... You get a great bonus when you sign up, and you can make your deposit using your Visa card, person-to-person transfers (like Western Union) or the virtual currency of Bitcoin, which is fast and easy with their automated system, and NEVER incurs a transaction fee!

(The preceding information has been furnished for news matter only)


Sign-up for the OSGA Newsletter!

Every week get news and updates, exclusive offers and betting tips delivered right to you email inbox.