How Arizona State would match up against Clemson in College Football Playoff quarterfinals

Posted by Admin December 16, 2024 Football

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The Arizona State Sun Devils are back to work this week, practicing well into December for the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl on New Year’s Day 2025.

On Saturday the fourth-seeded Sun Devils will find out which team they will face in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Peach Bowl — No. 5 seed Texas or No. 12 seed Clemson. The Longhorns and Tigers play a CFP first-round game at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin on Saturday at 2 p.m. MST, with the winner moving on to Atlanta to face ASU.

Clemson, like Texas, has been on the big stage before with two national championships in the past nine years, 2015 and 2017. Head coach Dabo Swinney has been in charge since 2009, with only three seasons of fewer than 10 wins in that span.

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But Clemson is the lowest seed of the 12 teams in the CFP tournament and the only team with three losses. If ASU faces Clemson, here’s a look at how the Sun Devils (11-2) match up against the Tigers (10-3):

Comparing schedules

After a 34-3 drubbing at the hands of Georgia in Week 1, Clemson won six in a row before a home loss to Louisville. Then the Tigers won three straight, only to lose their rivalry game against No. 15 South Carolina on the final week of the regular season.

Still the Tigers got into the ACC title game, and upset SMU to earn a spot in the College Football Playoff.

Clemson’s strength of schedule was ranked 54th, per College Football Network. That’s 19 spots lower than ASU’s, and yet the Tigers would go into the CFP quarterfinal as a slight favorite.

Clemson on offense

Any success the Tigers have on offense starts with quarterback Cade Klubnik, who has completed 63.7 percent of his passes for 3,303 yards. He has 33 touchdown passes and just five interceptions, and is a threat to run. He’s carried 106 times for 458 yards and seven rushing touchdowns.

The Tigers average 35.5 points per game on offense. They average 274 passing yards per game, about 50 more than Sam Leavitt and Arizona State, and rushed for 181 yards per game compared to 199 for ASU. Running back Phil Mafah has 1,106 yards this season, with an average of 5.2 yards per carry.

In other words, Clemson can score, and the Tigers can do it through the air and on the ground.

The ASU defense has been solid in the turnover battle, and if the Sun Devils can pick off Klubnik a couple of times, Clemson’s chances of winning go down by a lot.

If Clemson can solve the Texas defense first, that is.

Clemson on defense

If the Sun Devils get in the red zone, Clemson is very average in red zone defense. Teams score 81 percent of the time including 14 passing touchdowns, so Leavitt could be looking for his receivers a little more inside the 20-yard line.

The Tigers are 60th in pass defense, allowing 214.4 yards per game. Their rushing defense is ranked even lower, so the Tigers will give up yards, conceivably. But opponents average just under 22 points per game against them.

Defensive end T.J. Parker leads the Tigers in sacks with 11 this season, which is third in the ACC. Safety Khalil Barnes’ four interceptions lead the Tigers, and cornerback Aveion Terrell is a rising NFL prospect at cornerback.

There’s no counting out any Clemson team with Swinney at the helm. He turned the program around and knows how to win big games, and it’s an advantage the Tigers would have even though they haven’t won a national title in almost seven years.