2017 ACC Football Championship Miami Hurricanes-Clemson Tigers: Preview and Prediction

Date: Saturday, Dec. 2 | Time: 8 p.m. ET
Location: Bank of America Stadium — Charlotte, North Carolina
TV: ABC | Live stream: WatchESPN

Clemson favored by 9.5

This will be a very interesting match-up as Mark Richt leads the upstart Hurricanes into this game coming off a surprising one-loss season. The Clemson Tigers were expected to drop off at least a little bit after last year’s National Championship. The Tigers may be just as good as they were last year and they are almost a double-digit favor over the young Hurricanes. No matter how this game turns out Coach Richt seems to have the Canes on their way back to national prominence.

Can Malik Rosier have a big game?

The reason the Canes are such big underdogs has something to do with the injuries to Chris Herndon IV and Ahmmon Richards in the last week. This has taken away two of the top three receiving options for Malik Rosier, and Rosier has struggled much of the season already. Taking those two weapons away will make it that much harder for the Canes offense to do anything against Clemson’s defense. The game will hinge on running back Travis Homer and the Miami offensive line to have their best game of the year if they want a shot to win this game.

Clemson offense against Hurricanes defense?

Clemson’s offense is not a run-n-gun type of offense which is why sometimes they don’t blow teams out when you think they should. The key will be the Canes coming up big on third down, and most importantly, they need to cause turnovers against the Tigers. If they can do those two things the Canes will have a might be in the game late.

Prediction

I do NOT expect the Canes to lay down here and their defense is the main reason. It will take some luck and a few turnover chains for the Canes to win this game, but I do believe they will be in this all the way to the end. Take the Canes and the 9.5 points, but take the Tigers to go to another Final Four.

Clemson 20 Miami 16
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