Clemson Football: Spread Prediction vs. Notre Dame in Cotton Bowl

Here is our pick against the spread for Clemson football’s matchup against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Saturday afternoon in the Cotton Bowl.

Clemson football (13-0) will take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Saturday afternoon in the Cotton Bowl.

The Tigers will be without starting defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, as well as tight end Braden Galloway and offensive lineman Zach Giella, whose B-Samples came back positive for a drug test.

Clemson will rely on Albert Huggins and Nyles Pinckney at defensive tackle to fill in the gap.

With a win, the Tigers will advance to the National Championship game for a third time in the past four years.

Clemson Football Pick Against the Spread:

Current Spread: Clemson -12.5

Spread Prediction:

The Tigers opened up as 11-point favorites. That spread climbed to as high as 13.5 before dropping back down to 12.5.

I believe that Clemson is the better team. The Tigers are more explosive offensively and deeper defensively. With that being said, I do think that Notre Dame is motivated coming into this one.

The game’s going to be close for a while, but I just truly believe that Clemson is going to win this one and take control of the game. The Tigers cover that 12.5-point spread on the back of a dominant defensive line effort and an explosive offensive outing.

Over/Under: 56.5

Over/Under Prediction:

I’m thinking the final score of this game is something like 35-21 or 38-24. That means we’re looking at a matchup that’s going to be very close to the total.

I’m going to take the “over,” but it wouldn’t surprise me if the matchup goes a bit lower than most believe. The consensus in Vegas is that the game will go over and that the Tigers will cover the spread.

It should be a fun one to watch and it will be interesting to see if the Tigers can find a way to win the Cotton Bowl and keep the 2018 season alive.