The defending national champion Clemson Tigers will be looking to finish with consecutive unbeaten seasons when they take on Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Joe Burrow and the LSU Tigers in the 2020 College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday, January 13 at 8:00 PM ET, live from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA.
Despite being solid 5.5-point underdogs in this year’s national championship, there are a bunch of great reasons to back the now, perennially-powerful Tigers to get the big upset win in this highly anticipated affair. Let’s find out now what those reasons are.
Reasons to Bet the Clemson Tigers to Win the 2020 CFP National Championship
- When: Monday, January 13, 2019 at 8:00 PM ET
- Where: Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, CA
- 2020 CFP National Championship Odds: LSU -5.5 / Total: 69.5
Offense
LSU might be known for their high-scoring ways this season, but Clemson is just as dangerous offensively. The Tigers finished fourth in scoring by putting up a stellar 46.5 points per contest. Clemson finished 20th in passing and an even more impressive 10th in rushing. The Tigers scored 40 points or more 10 times this season while topping the 50-point plateau six times and the 60-point mark once.
Defense
Defense is where Clemson has the big edge in this year’s national championship. The Tigers rank first in total defense, first against the pass, ninth against the run and a stupendous first in points allowed (10.6 ppg). While Clemson, admittedly, doesn’t face a ton of elite opponents in the modest ACC, they did manage to hold offensively-explosive Texas A&M to 10 points while limiting Ohio State’s top-ranked scoring offense (48.7 ppg) to just 23 points in their CFP semifinal win the last time out. If any team can slow Joe Burrow and LSU’s potent offense, it looks like it’s Clemson.
Quarterback and Running Back
Junior quarterback Trevor Lawrence gets the lion’s share of national media attention for his prolific passing, but Clemson actually has two elite stars on the offensive side of the ball. Lawrence passed for 3,172 yards with 34 TD passes and just eight interceptions while completing a blistering 68.8 percent of his passes.
Making Clemson’s offense even more difficult to stop is star running back Travis Etienne. The fleet-footed junior rushed for 1,500 yards during the regular season with 17 touchdowns while averaging a phenomenal 8.2 yards per carry. Etienne also showed some versatility by adding 29 catches for an additional 298 yards and two scores.
Coaching
LSU’s Ed Orgeron might be having the best season of his previously unheralded career, but Clemson’s Dabo Swinney has few peers in the same class of elite head coaches that he resides in. Swinney has built up his program at Clemson into one of the truly elite programs in the country. The Tigers have won two of the last three national championships while winning at least 14 games in four of the last five seasons.
Clemson has only one season with more than one loss in their last five campaigns and the Tigers have reached the coveted double-digit win mark in nine straight seasons. Clemson has gone a mind-boggling 29-0 heading into the 2020 national championship. Yeah, when it comes to coaching Swinney has the big edge in this matchup.
Big Game History
The Tigers have reached each of the last five College Football Playoffs while reaching the championship game in three of the last four years. More importantly, Clemson has won two of the last three national titles by beating perennially-powerful Alabama both times, including last season’s stunning 44-16 blowout win over then then, defending champion Crimson Tide. Clemson won it all in 2017 by beating Alabama 35-31 as a 6.5-point underdog.
Last year, the Tigers took out the Crimson Tide as a 5.5-point underdog, so, clearly, when it comes to big game experience and overcoming teams that are favored to beat them in the national championship, Clemson knows how to get it done and that means the Tigers have more than a chance to go back-to-back this year!
