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Quarterback Joe Burrow won the Heisman Trophy
in historic fashion, and he's the main reason LSU is favored to
beat Clemson in the College Football Championship on Monday
night in New Orleans.
No. 3 Clemson is 14-0 -- like LSU. But unlike LSU, Clemson is
also the defending national champion, winner of 29 consecutive
games, and looking for its third national championship in four
seasons.
"It's always good to have experience," Clemson coach Dabo
Swinney told reporters this week, "but we won the National
Championship with a true freshman quarterback (Trevor Lawrence)
last year. That was supposedly a disadvantage for us, so I don't
buy any of that stuff."
Lawrence is 25-0 as a starter, having taken over early last
season. He threw two touchdown passes, ran for more than 100
yards, including a 67-yard touchdown, and drove the Tigers 94
yards to the winning touchdown with less than two minutes
remaining in a 29-23 victory against No. 2 Ohio State in the CFP
Semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl.
"He makes some big-time plays in big-time ball games and for a
big chunk of yards," LSU coach Ed Orgeron said. "Obviously, he
made some big gains against Ohio State, which helped them win
the game."
But just as LSU has gotten more attention than Clemson this
season, so too has Burrow gotten more attention than Lawrence.
Burrow broke the SEC single-season records for touchdown passes
and passing yards.
"We have five NFL guys in routes every single snap, and it's
tough to cover," Burrow said. "We're a tough matchup for a lot
of people, and then I just try to get the ball in (his
receivers') hands on time and accurately and then let them do
the rest."
While the offense is a marquee unit for LSU, Clemson's defense
has drawn the most attention during its championship runs,
though both teams are obviously complete teams.
Clemson allows the fewest points of any team in the country
(11.5 per game) and the second-fewest yards (264.1).
"You can tell that they have 11 really smart guys," Burrow said.
"They do a lot of different things on defense, and they have a
really good coach (defensive coordinator Brent Venables) that
makes it difficult."
The LSU defense was inconsistent for much of the season and
bottomed out when it allowed 402 rushing yards and 614 total
yards to Ole Miss in a 58-37 win in mid-November.
But in the four games since, LSU has allowed averages of just 86
rushing yards, 184 passing yards and 16.3 points.
"I think after the Ole Miss game, it was kind of a turnaround
for us," All-America safety Grant Delpit said. "I think we just
kind of lit a fire and started playing LSU football after that."
The home-state crowd figures to favor LSU just as the oddsmakers
have favored them. But Clemson is the been-there-done-that team
in this matchup.
"I've been blessed to be a part of all four National
Championship appearances all the way back to my redshirt year,"
senior linebacker Chad Smith said. "That's pretty surreal."
LSU has beaten six teams that were ranked in the Top 10 when
they played. Clemson's first game against a Top 10 team came
against Ohio State, but it showed its championship pedigree by
overcoming a 16-0 deficit to win.
"It's a great matchup, the two best teams for this year, two
great quarterbacks," Swinney said. "That's the way a
championship game ought to be."
--Field Level Media
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