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Free Cotton Bowl Prediction: Tigers vs Fighting Irish Odds
Looking for Clemson Tigers vs. Notre Dame Fighting Irish free picks? Cotton Bowl betting sees the Tigers taking on the Fighting Irish on Saturday December 29 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas. Cappers Picks provides complimentary handicapping picks all NCAA football season long so stay tuned for more FREE college football predictions like this Clemson Notre Dame Cotton Bowl free pick.
College Football Handicapping: 2018 Cotton Bowl
(13-0) Clemson Tigers vs. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (12-0)
Date: Saturday, December 29 2018
Time: 4:00 pm EST
Venue: Cotton Bowl, Dallas, Texas
NCAA Football Spread: Clemson -11.5
NCAA Betting Total: 55.5
Live CFB Odds
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This is the first of the two College Football Playoffs semi finals. It is no surprise to see Clemson here but I am still not sure that Notre Dame is better than some of the teams that got left out.
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It is kind of fun that these are two undefeated teams thought you can tell by the spread that there is a gap between them. Clemson might still be peaking.
Clemson Tigers
It seems to take a while for the Tigers to get going but once they did they dominated. Only once in their last 8 games did the give up more than 16 points. They became the team we thought they would and didn’t “Clemson” it early on to get here.
On offense they could not be more balanced. Instead of a wicked passing attack it this was the year of Travis Etienne. 21 TD and more than 8 yards per carry. He and the offensive line made it easy for Trevor Lawrence to not have to do it all himself.
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At the start of the season it was all about the defensive line and how they were going to dominate foes. They did and overall the defense was terrific. They allowed less than 14 points per game and were 6th overall in yards, which is always a tough spot given how much garbage time the average Clemson game has.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
If you finish the season and you are Notre Dame you get invited into the playoffs, sorry UCF. Still I think this team is hard to rate because if you look at their wins you see a lot them are over established brands who are down on their luck this season – we are looking at you USC.
One development over the course of the season was quarterback Ian Book. Once he came in to replace Brandon Wimbush the offense really took off. He is not as athletic but he can actually make plays with his arm. He will need to in this one.
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The defense put up great numbers this season and has been pretty good over the last few years. Again I think those numbers have benefitted from taking on weakers versions this season but giving up less than 20ppg is still very impressive.
NCAA Football Handicapping Trends
- ND are 6-2-1 ATS in their last 9 games overall.
- Over is 6-2 in ND last 8 games in December.
- CLEM are 8-1 ATS in their last 9 games in December.
- CLEM are 7-1 ATS in their last 8 bowl games.
- CLEM are 6-2 ATS in their last 8 games overall.
Free Cotton Bowl NCAA Football Pick
This is a very big number for a playoff game and indicator of how big the gap is between Alabama Clemson and everyone else. The Irish might be able to keep this one low scoring though to give them a chance.
4* Free NCAA Betting Pick: Clemson -11.5
I don’t want to give up so many points but Clemson is really good and it seems like they are destined to take on Alabama, again. Winning each half by a TD seems reasonable.
This one is probably a sluggish start though so looking at first half unders and maybe unders for the game makes a lot of sense.
Cotton Bowl Free Score Prediction: Clemson 27 – Notre Dame 10
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