Alabama D-Line Gets the Headlines, but Clemson's Shouldn't Be Overlooked

His selection was well deserved, but even Clemson defensive lineman Clelin Ferrell called being part of the press conference after the Fiesta Bowl "kind of crazy."

It's an honor delegated to the head coach and game MVPs, and Ferrell earned his spot by being more than a menace during the 31-0 rout of Ohio State. Although to many he had previously been considered the defensive line's equivalent of Ringo to the Beatles, he made four tackles, including three for a loss and a sack.

Underrated? Overlooked? Those words may have been used to describe Clemson's defensive line earlier in the season, but no more.

Sophomore Christian Wilkins was named an All-American, senior Carlos Watkins first-team All-ACC and freshman Dexter Lawrence a second-team selection. Now, Ferrell, a redshirt freshman who at 265 pounds is the smallest of the Tigers' four starters on the line despite his 6'5" frame, had his honor too.

"We were dominant up front," Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said while sitting alongside Ferrell. "We had 11 tackles for loss. We had several sacks. Carlos Watkins, Clelin Ferrell, those guys were awesome."

They will need to be so again for Clemson to have a chance to knock off Alabama for the national title. While quarterback Deshaun Watson deservedly gets a lot of the credit for the offense, Clemson has no stronger unit—both figuratively and literally—than the defensive line.

Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer called the players "gigantic" before Clemson tallied 11 tackles for loss, three sacks, two forced fumbles, two interceptions and five pass breakups while pulling off the impressive shutout in Arizona.

Statisticians didn't credit either team with a quarterback pressure, but anyone who watched the game saw a lot of penetrating and pressure, as Ohio State managed just 88 rushing yards and 127 passing.

Clemson's MO of wreaking as much havoc as possible was on full display. But it clearly started with the line.

"That's probably why they've been pretty successful," Alabama head coach Nick Saban noted.

Saban, of course, knows a few things about strong defensive play, and the Crimson Tide remain the standard by which other teams are measured. Alabama has scored 11 defensive touchdowns this season, and opponents have only been in the red zone 21 times.

Clemson can't touch those numbers but isn't far off statistically in the four major defensive categories, where the Tigers are ranked in the top 10 in all but one.

Category	Rank (Stat)	No. 1 Team (Stat)
Total D	8 (306.9 yards)	Alabama (244.0)
Scoring D	7 (17.1 points)	Alabama (11.4)
Pass Effic. D	4 (100.6 rating)	Florida (92.9)
Rushing D	19 (123.1 yards)	Alabama (62.0)

The teams are close in many other stat groups as well. Among them, they're the two best at forcing three-and-outs. Alabama has notched one more sack (50 to 49), but Clemson has more tackles for a loss (8.8 per game compared to 8.0).

Both teams have forced 27 turnovers. In third-down conversions Clemson is sixth, Alabama seventh.

"We're more consistent than we were this time last year," Swinney said. "We were very good, a top-10 defense last year, but too many big plays, very inconsistent at times."

Part of that is reflected in Clemson's having 23 different players with a tackle for loss and 16 players in on a sack this season.

Consequently, even though they will never go against one another, how Clemson's defensive line fares in comparison to Alabama's is a huge matchup in the national championship game. If one outperforms the other, that team will have a huge advantage.

Richard Shiro/Associated Press/Associated Press

It can't be assumed that that team will be Alabama. Clemson has both size and depth along the line, but also versatility. Like the Crimson Tide, the Tigers have defensive ends who can line up in the interior—Watkins is listed as 6'3" and 305 pounds, Wilkins is 6'4" and 310 and Lawrence is 6'4" and 340—and the coaches aren't afraid to move them around to try to exploit mismatches.

"Oh, they're big," Alabama left tackle Cam Robinson said. "They've got great size, but something I have noticed is their big guys, they're really athletic. They're not just big guys that can't move. They do a lot of moving up front, and a lot of their big guys can kind of use their size but mix with their agility. They can move really well for guys to be as big as they are."

Off the top of his head, Robinson couldn't think of another defensive line Alabama faced this season that reminded him of Clemson. That's telling because it saw some of the best units college football had to offer, including Texas A&M, Tennessee, Florida and LSU. Granted, each was as different as Auburn from Washington, but this could potentially be the toughest of them all.

"To be able to especially play in this day and age, it takes even a different sort of guy that's more versatile, more athletic, because of the pace of play as well as the style of play that has kind of taken over in college football relative to whatever you want to call the spread offense," Saban said about defensive linemen.

"So there's a lot more perimeter plays. There's a lot more passes. To find guys that are athletic enough to play that position but still strong enough and stout enough to be able to play gaps and play blocks and control the line of scrimmage is even more challenging than it's ever been before."

Yet these programs have been as good as anyone in that respect.

Lawrence was considered a 5-star prospect last year by Scout.com, while Watkins, Wilkins and Ferrell were solid 4-star additions. The big question with the unit at the beginning of the season was experience, as Watkins was the only returning starter.

Shaq Lawson (who struggled to play with a knee injury in last year's title game), Kevin Dodd and D.J. Reader were selected in the first, second and fifth rounds of last year's NFL draft, respectively.

Few thought their young replacements would be as effective—for example, Phil Steele has Clemson 11th in his College Football Preview publication's defensive line rankings—even though their potential was apparent.

"I know there's not too many D-lines out here that are as athletic as the guys we have with Carlos, Dex, Christian, guys like Austin Bryant," Clemson safety Jadar Johnson told reporters before the Fiesta Bowl. "And Clelin, he's another one. He's crazy athletic, too. That's why I have so much confidence in our D-line, because I know we have extreme athletes down there."

On Alabama's side, both Jonathan Allen and Da'Ron Payne were considered 5-star talents, along with reserve Da'Shawn Hand. The Crimson Tide defense is littered with them.

"Everybody is a 5-star over there," Swinney quipped.

"I think the main thing for us is we've evaluated well, and we've developed our players. We've had great continuity across the board from a staff standpoint, but especially defensively. When you can have continuity, you can kind of get to that next level from a development standpoint."

That's an area in which these two teams differ greatly, although after 14 games it might have little impact on the rematch. Linebackers coach Tosh Lupoi is the only Alabama defensive assistant who was on the staff the previous year (although defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt had previously worked at Alabama).

Meanwhile, Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables just won the Broyles Award, and associate head coach and defensive tackles coach Dan Brooks was named the National Assistant Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association.

Regardless, both defenses had success with few returning starters and reinvented themselves. Some players like Ferrell didn't get a chance to play in last year's national championship game, so when he got a chance to return to University of Phoenix Stadium for a playoff game, he wanted to make the most of it.

"But I feel like we're past that now because we're focused at the next task at hand, which is winning the national championship," he said.

The only way it happens is if Clemson's defensive line has another outstanding performance.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Christopher Walsh is a lead SEC college football writer. Follow Christopher on Twitter @WritingWalsh.