The weekend’s finest recreation on the schedule aspects a matchup of two teams who can even both presumably own a blueprint within the College Soccer Playoff as No. 2 Notre Dame faces No. 3 Clemson within the ACC Championship Sport in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Any meeting of Clemson and Notre Dame goes to reach with its possess blueprint of expectations and hype resulting from the 2 packages no longer easiest being on the head of the sport within the College Soccer Playoff period however having performed in a CFP semifinal in 2018. Now add on high of that the double-overtime thriller in South Bend, Indiana, earlier this season and a high-5 matchup that is making ACC history and or no longer it’s comprehensible why this rematch is getting so remarkable attention.
Now we own two of the head quarterbacks in all of faculty football with Trevor Lawrence (33-1) and Ian E book (30-3) within the file books as the winningest quarterback in college history for their respective packages and two of the head coaches within the sport with Brian Kelly and Dabo Swinney.
Oh yeah, and if Notre Dame wins the recreation or no longer it’s the first conference championship in program history. We will salvage into more detailed storylines under referring to the particular recreation and how this can even be settled on the discipline, however the pleasure around this clash of high teams exceeds anything that the ACC has viewed forward of in its season-ending championship recreation.
Storylines
Notre Dame: The Scuffling with Irish protection has been elite under Clark Lea, and now we now own hit the tip of his time in South Bend with Vanderbilt introducing the defensive coordinator as its subsequent head coach. Below Lea, Notre Dame has held 33-of-36 opponents under 30 functions, in conjunction with LSU, Michigan, Stanford, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Clemson, Georgia, Virginia, Navy and North Carolina after they were ranked within the head 25. This yr, Notre Dame’s 17.6 functions per recreation allowed ranks fifth among all Vitality 5 teams and the community is loaded with depth and journey in one map that can wear down opponents sooner or later of the recreation. The Scuffling with Irish own received high-scoring games and low-scoring games on its path to 10-0 here in 2020, however one constant thread has been how infrequently they are trailing in a recreation.
In 600 minutes of law motion, Notre Dame has trailed for correct 44: 47, a testomony to how the Scuffling with Irish protection can capture alter of a recreation and take care of the opponent from setting up any produce of inspire. There is now not any expectation that Clemson will be puny to no longer as a lot as 20 functions or even held under 30, however conserving Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne in examine is a immense piece of how Notre Dame can total the 2-recreation sweep of the Tigers and claim its first ever conference championship.
Clemson: Travis Etienne has the profession ACC speeding landing file, the ACC profession landing file and is 10 functions away from passing Florida Relate kicker Dustin Hopkins as the ACC’s profession scoring chief. But he’s had six straight games with out a longer as a lot as 100 speeding yards and the Tigers’ speeding offense has no longer been buzzing on the the same clip as what we seen in 2018 and 2019. This is terribly vital to say heading into the matchup with the Scuffling with Irish, since Etienne became once puny to correct 28 speeding yards on 18 attempts within the first meeting this yr. Being the all-cause famous particular person that he’s, Etienne aloof found ways to own an impact within the passing recreation with 57 receiving yards however setting up a relentless ground attack against indubitably among the correct lumber defenses within the nation is presumably basically the most decided path to victory for Clemson.
Trevor Lawrence is ample of a distinction-maker along with his addition to the equation that Clemson indisputably can beat Notre Dame with out having Etienne chase for 100 yards however getting him going and avoiding heaps of third-and-long eventualities for Lawrence would salvage things quite a bit more easy on the offense.
Viewing files
Tournament: ACC Championship Sport
Date: Saturday, Dec. 19 | Time: 4 p.m. ET
Region: Bank of America Stadium — Charlotte, N.C.
TV: ABC | Dwell poke: fuboTV (Are trying with out cost)
Notre Dame vs. Clemson prediction, picks
Most up-to-date Odds:
Clemson Tigers
-11
This line is correct vulgar to Notre Dame, a crew that has been taking part in at a high degree on a week-in, week-out foundation for virtually the final season. The Scuffling with Irish were 5.5-point underdogs after they received in South Bend earlier this yr and now bag themselves as double-digit dogs within the rematch? Crimson zone protection is a mountainous map to veil spreads, so while I salvage assume Clemson wins it received’t be by more than a landing. Take: Notre Dame +10.5
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