The North Carolina Tar Heels and Clemson Tigers clash Saturday in the college football ACC Championship game from Bank of America Stadium.
The Clemson Tigers come into the ACC title game with a record of 10-2 on the year. DJ Uiagalelei has thrown for 2,511 yards, 22 touchdowns and 7 interceptions on 62.4% passing along with 545 rushing yards and 7 scores while Will Shipley’s rushed for a team-high 1,092 yards and 14 touchdowns. Antonio Williams has a team-high 47 catches for 523 yards while three more Clemson receivers have at least 350 receiving yards on the year. On defense, Jeremiah Trotter Jr. leads Clemson with 71 total tackles including 37 solo tackles while Myles Murphy has a team-high 6.5 sacks as part of Clemson’s 35 sacks as a unit and Clemson has 11 interceptions as a whole this season.
The North Carolina Tar Heels enter the ACC title game with a record of 9-3 this season. Drake Maye has thrown for 3,847 yards, 35 touchdowns and 5 interceptions on 67.7% passing while also leading the Tar Heels in rushing with 629 rushing yards and 6 touchdowns while Omarion Hampton has 396 rushing yards and 6 scores and Elijah Green has 443 rushing yards with 8 scores. Josh Downs leads UNC’s receiving group with 83 catches for 929 yards and 11 touchdowns while Antoine Green has 745 receiving yards and 7 touchdowns. Bryson Nesbit and J.J. Jones also have 400+ receiving yards apiece this season. On defense, Cedric Gray leads the Tar Heels with 129 total tackles including a team-high 72 solo tackles and a pair of interceptions while Storm Duck has 3 INTs and Noah Taylor has a team-high 3.5 sacks.
Clemson is 15-2 ATS in their last 17 games in December and 5-1 ATS in their last 6 conference games while the over is 6-1 in their last 7 games following an ATS loss. North Carolina is 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games following an ATS loss and 3-8 ATS in their last 11 neutral site games while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 neutral site games.
I get the case to be made across the board here, but I’m looking at the under because I feel this total is too high. Clemson’s had some high-scoring games lately, but I think this Tiger group regresses to playing a physical style to slow down this UNC offense. On the other side, UNC’s defense hasn’t been great, but I don’t envision Clemson running it up and down the field on the Tar Heels. I think this one ends up as a 31-24 kind of game whichever way you slice it, so give me the under here.