Event of the Day: Alabama Crimson Tide versus Clemson Tigers

Our event of the day is the college football National Championship between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Clemson Tigers at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. No team in college football have appeared in, or won more National Championships than Alabama, who have won the prestigious title three times in the last four years. Clemson themselves are no strangers to this titanic game having appeared in it three times in the last five years, winning it on one occasion in 2017. Tonight’s game will be the fourth time these two schools have faced each other in the National Championship game in the last five years. Alabama asserted their dominance over the collegiate football system once again this year after they won all 12 of their regular season games by at least 20 points, becoming the first team to achieve this feat since Yale in 1990. Clemson will be weary of Alabama’s deadly wide receiving duo of Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs, who have connected with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa effectively all season long. Jeudy has caught 13 touchdown passes already this season, whilst his sophomore team mate Henry Ruggs has averaged a gain of 16.4 yards per catch this term, registering 11 touchdowns on the season. 

 

Despite Alabama’s impressive regular season record, Clemson Tigers have actually recorded more yards of offence across the campaign than tonight’s opponents. Their offence is very much reliant upon the rush game, after picking up more than 3,500 rushing yards on the season. The Tigers’ rushing brigade is lead by running back Travis Etienne, who ran for over 1,500 yards this year, notching 22 touchdowns in the process. Head coach Dabo Swinney will likely turn to Etienne and his rushing companions to overrun Crimson Tide’s average defence against the run, which ranked 21st this season. These two sides are yet to face each other during this thrilling campaign, with the two schools’ last meeting coming two years ago in the 2017 National Championship game, on which occasion the Tigers ran out 35-31 winners.

 

Honourable mentions around the globe go to the final third round FA Cup tie as Liverpool travel to Molineux to face high-flying Wolves. With their title challenge well and truly up and running, Jurgen Klopp could be tempted to ring the changes for tonight’s game, but will be aware that Wolves have proved a tough nut to crack on their home patch this term and he may need to field a very strong team to overcome their Premier League counterparts. Elsewhere, in the NBA, two of the Western Conference’s best franchises go head to head as the Houston Rockets welcome the Denver Nuggets to the Toyota Center, as the hosts look to bounce straight back from defeat last time out against Portland. There are three fixtures in the Asian Cup today, as China PR play Kyrgyzstan, Iran face Yemen and South Korea do battle with the Philippines. In the NHL, the Philadelphia Flyers will look to snap their six-game losing streak against St. Louis Blues, with both sides currently residing rock-bottom of their respective divisions.