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For the third time in the past four years, the Alabama Crimson Tide and Clemson Tigers will play for the national championship. Last year, they met in the College Football Playoff semifinals.
The Tide have won two of the three matchups, but Clemson still has plenty of players on the roster who have won it all.
On Tuesday’s episode of College GameDay on ESPN, coach Dabo Swinney discussed the title experience his team has (via 247Sports):
“There’s a lot of guys back from that team, but we’ve still got a lot of new pieces,” Swinney said during Tuesday’s appearance on College GameDay. “Obviously with our quarterback, Justyn Ross and other guys. The biggest thing, the guys understand that you get a few plays you have to make to beat Alabama. We’ve got a bunch of guys who have won one and a bunch of guys who have lost one, so they understand how competitive you have to be to beat Alabama.”
As for the decision to make freshman Trevor Lawrence the starter over Kelly Bryant earlier this year, Swinney said Alabama didn’t play a part in that:
“Alabama had zero impact on our decision (at quarterback),” Swinney said. “Our decision was based on the present moment. We don’t make decisions based on potential. We make decisions based on performance here. After four games, Trevor’s performance made the change. When you start making decisions based on potential, you starting losing your team and you’re gambling on things working out in the future.”
These two teams are getting quite familiar with playing on the biggest stage, so we’ll see how this year’s title game matchup plays out on Monday night.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
