College Football Playoff Championship Game: Alabama vs. Clemson Preview

ESPN ^ | 1-6-2019 | Davbid Hale & Alex Scarborough

[blam]

Clemson's Christian Wilkins will end his fourth and final season with the Tigers the same way he has ended each of the prior three: with a showdown against Alabama, and for the third time it comes in the College Football Playoff National Championship presented by AT&T (Monday, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN App).

"I guess the only comparison is the Rocky movies," he said. "I know after three it's a trilogy. But what's four?"

It's a good question, though it's doubtful Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney have spent much time researching it. The on-field questions, however, deserve plenty of attention.

Sure, this is a matchup between two teams that know each other pretty well by now. Alabama came back to beat Clemson for a national championship to cap the 2015 season. Clemson returned the favor in 2016. Last season, the Tide topped the Tigers in the Allstate Sugar Bowl before upending Georgia for another title. And there are plenty of holdovers from those three, from Wilkins to the coaches to the undeniable heavyweight fight comparisons. But a lot has changed, too, and so we're digging into the details -- and hopefully avoiding too many Rocky allusions -- to find out who has the advantage in Part IV of college football's biggest rivalry.

Alabama X factor: Safety Deionte Thompson will have his hands full with all of Clemson's receivers, but Hunter Renfrow is another animal. Thompson can ask his predecessor, Minkah Fitzpatrick, about that. Fitzpatrick, a first-round pick and perhaps the best defensive back ever to come through Tuscaloosa, was torched by Renfrow in the team's three previous playoff matchups, where he caught a combined 22 passes for 211 yards and four touchdowns, including the winner in 2016.

(snip)

[a little elbow grease]

........ another of him