The entire season has been leading to this. The college football playoff. Win or go home. After losing to Georgia in the SEC championship game, the Longhorns must play in the first round. The opponent is the ACC Champion Clemson Tigers at DKR.
Oddly, Texas has never faced the Clemson Tigers. Clemson enters the playoff as the only conference champion that didn’t get a first round bye. It also marks the Austin return of Clemson QB Cade Klubnik, who went to Austin Westlake HS and face (and beat) Texas QB Quinn Ewers in the Texas State final at AT&T Stadium.
Ewers has been up and down in the past few games. He’ll have to play better for the Horns to go deep in the college football playoffs tournament. Some national media analysts think Texas coach Steve Sarkisian will have Ewers on a short leash and will insert Arch Manning if Quinn struggles. Sark actually got a little terse with a reporter asking about Ewers on Thursday.
Even though there will be a few changes in the game presentation at DKR on Sunday, UT should enjoy a distinct home field advantage.
Texas vs. Clemson game odds:
All College Football Odds via BetMGM:
- Point spread: Texas -11.5 -105 / Clemson +11.5 -115
- Money line: Texas -400 / Georgia +325
- Over-under: 51.5 -105
Texas injury updates:
- Kelvin Banks Jr. – OT (Questionable)
- Isaiah Bond – WR (Questionable)
- Derek Williams Jr. – DB (Out)
- CJ Baxter – RB (Out)
- Christian Clark – RB (Out)
- Velton Gardner – RB (Out)
Texas vs. Clemson prediction, pick
On paper, Texas is the better team. Clemson was dominated defensively against Georgia and South Carolina and almost allowed an epic comeback by SMU in the ACC Championship Game. Certainly, Texas has had its own struggles over the past few weeks. But a bye week should get the Horns (mostly) healed up and ready to show out.
Prediction: Texas 24, Clemson 13
Texas vs. Clemson channel, start time, streaming:
The Texas vs. Clemson game starts at 3 PM CT and can be seen on TNT. It will be streamed on MAX
[gambcom-standard rankid=”6305″ ]
Get more betting analysis and predictions at Sportsbook Wire.