NBA Postseason Best Bets (5/14)
Alex Christenson
Week 10 of the college football season is here.
Below, Monotone will give out his favorite CFB play of the week.
Clemson -3.5
(-105, PointsBet)
This Clemson spread kind of reminds me of the game against Florida State earlier this season. In both of those games, they take on tough opponents with good defenses, but the number still feels a bit shallow. Clemson is one of the few undefeated teams remaining in the nation and will absolutely need to win this game in order to continue their playoff run. It feels like the general narrative around Clemson hasn’t been very positive this week, with tons of commenters questioning why they are ranked Michigan and even TCU. While that doesn’t mean much, besides possibly more money coming in on Notre Dame, I think Clemson will come in motivated in a huge road spot.
Speaking of Notre Dame being at home, they have been really bad there this season. The Irish are 0-4 at home this season against the spread, including embarrassing losses to Marshall and Stanford. Over the last couple years, I have found that betting against Notre Dame in bigger games against ranked opponents has been a good strategy. Clemson is coming off a bye week, where they had plenty of time to watch over that Syracuse game that should have been a loss. Despite criticism over their strength of schedule, they did play in competitive games that went down to the wire against ranked Syracuse and Wake Forest teams this season, that late game experience should be an advantage here.
D.J. Uiagalelei versus Cade Klubnik is the big question we need to figure out before kickoff. Uiagalelei has looked improved from last season but struggled against Syracuse and was benched for Klubnik. Now that they have had the bye week, I wouldn’t be surprised if they made the transition now. While I feel comfortable with Clemson despite who’s at quarterback, Klubnik would definitely unlock some upside through the air, while still maintaining that dual-threat ability. With a total set at 44, it looks like the sportsbooks are expecting a defense-oriented game from both sides. I trust the battle-tested offense to be able to score against a good defense over Drew Pyne and the ND offense any day.
