College Football Playoffs Game Preview: Texas Longhorns vs. Clemson Tigers

The ACC Champion is headed to Austin to clash with the Longhorns.

Dec 7, 2024; Charlotte, NC, USA; Clemson Tigers quarterback Cade Klubnik (2) throws during the third quarter against the Southern Methodist Mustangs in the 2024 ACC Championship game at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images / Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

The College Football Playoffs will start this Saturday for the No. 5 Texas Longhorns and No. 12 Clemson Tigers, who will face off at the battlegrounds of DKR Stadium in Austin for a chance to advance and play Arizona State in the Peach Bowl.

It will be a homecoming game for Clemson QB Cade Klubnik, who grew up in Austin and won multiple state championships with Westlake High School.

This season, Klubnik has helped the Tigers win the ACC Championship and a 10-3 record by throwing for 3,303 yards, 33 touchdowns, and only five interceptions. He's also punched it into the endzone seven times on the ground to go with 458 rushing yards.

Clemson started the year with a really rough start, not even finding the endzone against the Georgia Bulldogs and losing 34-3 after being ranked 11th in the AP Poll in the preseason rankings. The Tigers bounced back with six straight wins before losing embarrassingly again, the final score being 33-21 to Louisville at home.

Clemson started looking dead in the water when it came to making the CFP after losing their third game in the final weak by a close score of 17-14 to South Carolina. But the following week in the ACC Championship against SMU, Klubnik put on a clinic. He completed 24 passes for 262 yards and four touchdowns, never turning the ball over. The result was a Tigers 34-31 victory after a game-winning 56-yard field goal was drilled by kicker Nolan Houser.

Dec 7, 2024; Charlotte, NC, USA; Clemson Tigers quarterback Cade Klubnik (2) throws during the first quarter against the Southern Methodist Mustangs in the 2024 ACC Championship game at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images / Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

The win notched them the 12th seed in the CFP, becoming the only team in the playoffs with more than two losses.

Freshman wide receiver Bryant Wesco Jr. from Midlothian, TX had a career night against SMU, catching eight passes for 143 yards and two touchdowns.

But Texas will have to worry about more than just him. Receiver Antonio Williams has dominated all season, catching 71 passes (the second-highest on the team is tight end Jake Briningstool with 45) for 838 yards and 10 touchdowns.

While not having particularly a strong schedule, the Clemson Tigers definitely have a strong offense, averaging 37.4 points per game. But when you look at the games when they played good defense like Georgia or South Carolina, the offense fumbled pretty hard and had lots of trouble finding the endzone.

The Texas defense can do the same. It is a relief for safety Andrew Mukuba to be on the Longhorns sideline for this game as he previously played for Clemson before transferring to Texas this past off-season.

Mukuba, Jim Thorpe Award winner Jahdae Barron, Taaffe, Hill Jr., and more have helped give the Longhorns defense about two turnovers a game on average. But one of Clemson's biggest strengths and not turning the ball over, their turnover ratio on the season is +16, and even when only scoring three points against Georgia, they still only turned the ball over once the entire game.

This feels like an unstoppable force going up against an immovable object almost in the sense that Texas is top five in forcing turnovers. And to add the extra prospect of the homecoming game for Klubnik, do not be surprised if this game is much closer than most think.

Kickoff is at 3 p.m. CT on TNT.

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