Clemson Is Used to Underdog Role in Big Games

Despite not being an underdog during the regular season since 2016, Clemson has not been favored in six of its eight College Football Playoff games—and it won't be against LSU.

The opening line of LSU -3.5 over Clemson in the national championship game in New Orleans on Jan. 13 didn’t last long.

Minutes after it hit the market, it went up. While some books have it -5.5 LSU, Bovada has Clemson a 6.5-point underdog. 

That's a role Dabo Swinney's Tigers are more familiar with than some might think.

“I guess you could say we're pretty comfortable with it. We don't really look too much to like the outside noise, whether we're an underdog or whether we're the team to beat in a particular game,” Clemson senior linebacker Chad Smith said. “We just focus on what we can control, focus on our preparation, and LSU is a great team.”

Despite all of its success, the program really has been here before.

While Clemson hasn’t been an underdog in a regular-season game since Oct. 1, 2016, against Louisville, the Tigers have never been the favorite in their now four trips to the national championship game in the College Football Playoff era.

They’ve also closed as a favorite in just two of their eight playoff games overall.

Clemson was -2.5 over Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl last week, when the Tigers won, 29-23. They were also favored by 10.5 points against Notre Dame in last year’s Cotton Bowl, which Clemson won by 27 points.

That’s it.

Going back to the 2015 Orange Bowl, Clemson was a 3.5-point underdog when it drilled Oklahoma 37-17 to capture the first playoff win in school history. The Tigers went on to lose, 45-40, to Alabama, which was favored by 6, in the national championship game in Glendale, Ariz.

In 2016, Clemson was a 1-point underdog to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, but the Tigers blasted the Buckeyes, 31-0. They followed that up by defeating Alabama 35-31 as a 6.5-point underdog in the national title game in Tampa, Florida.

Alabama got revenge as a 3.5-point favorite in the 2017 Sugar Bowl with a 24-6 victory in New Orleans. 

The Tigers then won their third national championship in school history by defeating the Crimson Tide, 44-16, despite being a 5-point underdog in Santa Clara, Calif., a year ago.

“Being here two years now and playing in a few games, you just see how much it doesn't really matter who's the favorite, and I think we as a team really understand that,” Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence said. “Not necessarily that we take offense to it, it's just like it really doesn't matter who the favorite is. You've got to go play the game.”

Being the betting underdog certainly fits the script for Swinney, who has proven to be a master motivator capable of keeping his team focused no matter the situation. Swinney questioned why his Tigers, which have now won 29 consecutive games, weren’t getting more publicity for their dominance after the South Carolina game in November.

Now, he’s got an easy disrespect card to use if he wants it: Clemson really is the underdog.

“We can hear all the outside noise or we can really focus on what we can do, have a narrow focus, put those blinders on, get ready to go back to work here soon in the next few days, and prepare ourselves to the best of our ability to have that chance to be national champions again,” Smith said.

Clemson has shown it isn’t a typical underdog, winning two of the last three national titles playing that exact role. This team knows how to handle the big stage against LSU, which is in its first national championship game of the CFP era, no matter what the betting market dictates.

“The game is going to be won on Jan. 13. It's not won before when all the odds come out,” Lawrence said.” You've got to play it. You have to prepare, and whoever prepares the best and plays the best on Monday is going to win the game.”