Notre Dame vs. Clemson: Live stream, ACC Championship Game kickoff time, prediction, pick, odds, line, spread
College Football Playoff positioning and a potentially historic conference title hang in the balance
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4 min read
The biggest game of the weekend schedule is a matchup of two teams who both have a legitimate shot to make it into the College Football Playoff as No. 2 Notre Dame faces No. 3 Clemson in the ACC Championship Game in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Any meeting of Clemson and Notre Dame is going to come with its own set of expectations and hype due to the two programs not only being at the top of the sport in the College Football Playoff era but having played in a CFP semifinal in 2018. Now add on top of that the double-overtime thriller in South Bend, Indiana, earlier this season and a top-five matchup that's making ACC history and it's understandable why this rematch is getting so much attention.
We've got two of the top quarterbacks in all of college football with Trevor Lawrence (33-1) and Ian Book (30-3) in the record books as the winningest quarterback in school history for their respective programs and two of the top coaches in the sport with Brian Kelly and Dabo Swinney.
Oh yeah, and if Notre Dame wins the game it's the first conference championship in program history. We'll get into more detailed storylines below regarding the actual game and how it will be settled on the field, but the excitement around this clash of top teams exceeds anything that the ACC has seen before in its season-ending championship game.
Storylines
Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish defense has been elite under Clark Lea, and now we've hit the end of his time in South Bend with Vanderbilt introducing the defensive coordinator as its next head coach. Under Lea, Notre Dame has held 33-of-36 opponents under 30 points, including LSU, Michigan, Stanford, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Clemson, Georgia, Virginia, Navy and North Carolina when they were ranked in the top 25. This year, Notre Dame's 17.6 points per game allowed ranks fifth among all Power Five teams and the group is loaded with depth and experience in a way that can wear down opponents throughout the game. The Fighting Irish have won high-scoring games and low-scoring games on its path to 10-0 here in 2020, but one consistent thread has been how infrequently they are trailing in a game.
In 600 minutes of regulation action, Notre Dame has trailed for just 44:47, a testament to how the Fighting Irish defense can take control of a game and keep the opponent from establishing any kind of advantage. There is no expectation that Clemson will be limited to less than 20 points or even held under 30, but keeping Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne in check is a big piece of how Notre Dame can complete the two-game sweep of the Tigers and claim its first ever conference championship.
Clemson: Travis Etienne has the career ACC rushing touchdown record, the ACC career touchdown record and is 10 points away from passing Florida State kicker Dustin Hopkins as the ACC's career scoring leader. But he's had six straight games with less than 100 rushing yards and the Tigers' rushing offense has not been humming at the same clip as what we saw in 2018 and 2019. This is particularly important to note heading into the matchup with the Fighting Irish, since Etienne was limited to just 28 rushing yards on 18 attempts in the first meeting this year. Being the all-purpose star that he is, Etienne still found ways to have an impact in the passing game with 57 receiving yards but establishing a consistent ground attack against one of the best run defenses in the country is perhaps the most clear path to victory for Clemson.
Trevor Lawrence is enough of a difference-maker with his addition to the equation that Clemson certainly can beat Notre Dame without having Etienne rush for 100 yards but getting him going and avoiding tons of third-and-long scenarios for Lawrence would make things a lot easier on the offense.
Viewing information
Event: ACC Championship Game
Date: Saturday, Dec. 19 | Time: 4 p.m. ET
Location: Bank of America Stadium -- Charlotte, N.C.
TV: ABC | Live stream: fuboTV (Try for free)
Notre Dame vs. Clemson prediction, picks
This line is just rude to Notre Dame, a team that has been playing at a high level on a week-in, week-out basis for nearly the entire season. The Fighting Irish were 5.5-point underdogs when they won in South Bend earlier this year and now find themselves as double-digit dogs in the rematch? Red zone defense is a great way to cover spreads, so while I do think Clemson wins it won't be by more than a touchdown. Pick: Notre Dame +10.5
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